Tissue engineering and stem cell research greatly benefit from cell encapsulation within hydrogels as it promotes cell expansion and differentiation. Affinity-triggered hydrogels, an appealing solution for mild cell encapsulation, rely on selective interactions between the ligand and target and also on the multivalent presentation of these two components. Although these hydrogels represent a versatile option to generate dynamic, tunable, and highly functional materials, the design of hydrogel properties based on affinity and multivalency remains challenging and unstudied. Here, the avidin–biotin affinity pair, with the highest reported affinity constant, is used to address this challenge. It is demonstrated that the binding between the affinity hydrogel components is influenced by the multivalent display selected. In addition, the natural multivalency of the interaction must be obeyed to yield robust multicomponent synthetic protein hydrogels. The hydrogel’s resistance to erosion depends on the right stoichiometric match between the hydrogel components. The developed affinity-triggered hydrogels are biocompatible and support encapsulation of induced pluripotent stem cells and their successful differentiation into a neural cell line. This principle can be generalized to other affinity pairs using multimeric proteins, yielding biomaterials with controlled performance.

中文翻译：

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自然多聚化决定了基于亲和力的物理水凝胶在干细胞封装和分化中的性能。

组织工程学和干细胞研究极大地受益于水凝胶内的细胞封装，因为它促进细胞扩增和分化。亲和力触发的水凝胶是温和的细胞封装的一种有吸引力的解决方案，它依赖于配体与靶标之间的选择性相互作用，还依赖于这两种组分的多价呈递。尽管这些水凝胶代表了生成动态，可调和高功能材料的通用选择，但基于亲和力和多价的水凝胶特性设计仍然具有挑战性且尚未研究。在这里，具有最高报道亲和常数的抗生物素蛋白-生物素亲和力对可用于解决这一挑战。证明亲和水凝胶组分之间的结合受所选择的多价展示的影响。此外，必须遵守相互作用的自然多价才能产生牢固的多组分合成蛋白水凝胶。水凝胶的抗腐蚀能力取决于水凝胶组分之间正确的化学计量比。所开发的亲和力触发水凝胶具有生物相容性，并支持诱导多能干细胞的封装及其成功分化为神经细胞系。可以使用多聚体蛋白将这一原理推广到其他亲和力对，从而获得具有受控性能的生物材料。所开发的亲和力触发水凝胶具有生物相容性，并支持诱导多能干细胞的封装及其成功分化为神经细胞系。可以使用多聚体蛋白将这一原理推广到其他亲和力对，从而获得具有受控性能的生物材料。所开发的亲和力触发水凝胶具有生物相容性，并支持诱导多能干细胞的封装及其成功分化为神经细胞系。可以使用多聚体蛋白将这一原理推广到其他亲和力对，从而获得具有受控性能的生物材料。