Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 37: Focus: Smart Hydrogels and Hydrogel Based Devices II - organized by Gerald Gerlach, Walter Richtering and Thomas Hellweg

CPP 37.3: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 14. März 2018, 10:15–10:30, C 130

Mechano-responsive Coiled Coil-based Hydrogels as Extracellular Matrix Mimics — •Alberto Sanz de Leon, Melis Goktas, Patricia Lopez Garcia, and Kerstin Blank — Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Mechano(bio)chemistry, Potsdam-Golm Science Park, 14424 Potsdam, Germany

Coiled coils (CCs) are protein motifs consisting of at least two α-helices wound into a superhelix. Besides providing structural support, CCs are also involved in different biomechanical signaling processes as they possess a well-defined response to mechanical loads. Considering their natural function as mechano-responsive building blocks, we have synthesized biomimetic hydrogels, using different CC sequences as dynamic, reversible crosslinks. These hydrogels can be fully disassembled and reassembled, showing well-defined self-healing properties. Observing their frequency-dependent behavior at different temperatures and strain rates, we are able to quantify thermodynamic and mechanical processes within these hydrogels. Their bulk mechanical response is well described by the Maxwell model for viscoelastic liquids. Using the Bell-Evans model, we are able to extract molecular parameters that describe CC rupture in the hydrogels. Comparing with single molecule force spectroscopy experiments, we show that this approach is sufficiently accurate to quantitatively extract molecular information from bulk viscoelastic parameters. These results lay the foundation for the future application of these hydrogels as smart mechano-responsive ECM mimics for dissecting local and global factors that determine the process of cellular mechanosensing.