Photo-dissociation of self-assembled (anthracene-2-carbonyl)amino acid hydrogels

Phillip R A Chivers,Rebecca S Dookie,Simon J Webb,Julie E Gough

doi:10.1039/d0cc05292b

Abstract

Amino acids modified with an N-terminal anthracene group self-assemble into supramolecular hydrogels upon the addition of a range of salts or cell culture medium. Gel-phase photo-dimerisation of gelators results in hydrogel disassembly and was used to recover cells from 3D culture.

Highlights

Amino acids modified with an N-terminal anthracene group selfassemble into supramolecular hydrogels upon the addition of a range of salts or cell culture medium
Supramolecular hydrogels formed by short peptides protected at the N-terminus are attractive, as functional materials with varied chemical, nanotopographical and mechanical properties can be accessed through exploration of peptide sequence space.[3]
It was hoped that the simplest anthracene-peptides, those with a single residue, would have the right balance between hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity to self-assemble into fibres

Summary

Introduction

Amino acids modified with an N-terminal anthracene group selfassemble into supramolecular hydrogels upon the addition of a range of salts or cell culture medium. Gel-phase photo-dimerisation of gelators results in hydrogel disassembly and was used to recover cells from 3D culture. Higher concentrations of both salt and gelator increased the ‘‘gelation’’ rate, which was faster and occurred at lower concentrations for hydrophobic (Anth) Phe-OH compared to (Anth)Tyr-OH.[20] Metal salt addition gave gel-like materials with a high final pH

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