Multiscale characterization of a chimeric biomimetic polypeptide for stem cells culturing

Mesenchymal stem cells have raised a great interest in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine because of their multipotentiality and relative ease of isolation from adult tissues. The medical application of this cellular system requires the inclusion in a growth and delivery scaffold that is crucial for the clinical effectiveness of the therapy. In particular, the ideal scaffolding material should have the needed porosity and mechanical strength to allow a good integration with the surrounding tissues, but it should also assure high biocompatibility and full resorbability. To such purpose, protein-inspired biomaterials and, in particular, elastomeric-derived polypeptides are playing a major role, in which they are expected to fulfil many of the biological and mechanical requirements. A specific chimeric protein, designed starting from Elastin, Resilin and Collagen sequences, was characterized over different length scales. Single molecule mechanics, aggregation properties and compatibility with human mesenchymal stem cells were tested, showing that the engineered compound is a good candidate as stem cells scaffold, to be used in tissue engineering applications.