Laminin-1 peptide-conjugated chitosan membranes as a novel approach for cell engineering

SPECIFIC AIMIn this study, we designed laminin-1 derived peptide-conjugated chitosan membranes as a basement membrane mimetic and investigated their biological activities to show a potential use of the membrane as a bioadhesive/scaffold for tissue regeneration and cell engineering.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS1. Preparation of the peptide-conjugated chitosan membrane and their cell attachment activities with cell type specificityFour biologically active peptides (A13: RQVFQVAYIIIKA, A99: AGTFALRGDNPQG, AG73: RKRLQVQLSIRT, and C16: KAFDITYVRLKF), previously identified from the adhesive protein laminin-1, were synthesized with a cysteine residue at the amino terminus. Chitosan, a polysaccharide, was mixed with N-(maleimidobenzoyloxy)-succinimide (MBS) and the obtained MB-chitosan was coated on tissue culture plates. The peptides were then added into the wells and covalently coupled to the MB-chitosan. The peptide-conjugated chitosan membranes showed cell attachment activity in a dose-dependent manner, whereas unmodifi...