Hydrogel‐based materials are widely used to mimic the extracellular matrix in bone tissue engineering, although they often lack biofunctional cues. In the authors' previous work, Potato virus X (PVX), a flexible rod‐shaped biocompatible plant virus nanoparticle (VNP) with 1270 coat protein subunits, is genetically modified to present functional peptides for generating a bone substitute. Here, PVX is engineered to present mineralization‐ and osteogenesis‐associated peptides and laden in hydrogels at a concentration lower by two orders of magnitude. Its competence in mineralization is demonstrated both on 2D surfaces and in hydrogels and the superiority of enriched peptides on VNPs is verified and compared with free peptides and VNPs presenting fewer functional peptides. Alkaline phosphatase activity and Alizarin red staining of human mesenchymal stem cells increase 1.2–1.7 times when stimulate by VNPs. Engineered PVX adheres to cells, exhibiting a stimulation of biomimetic peptides in close proximity to the cells. The retention of VNPs in hydrogels is monitored and more than 80% of VNPs remain inside after several washing steps. The mechanical properties of VNP‐laden hydrogels are investigated, including viscosity, gelling temperature, and compressive tangent modulus. This study demonstrates that recombinant PVX nanoparticles are excellent candidates for hydrogel nanocomposites in bone tissue engineering.

中文翻译：

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将超低量的工程化植物病毒纳米颗粒附着于间充质干细胞可增强成骨和矿化作用。

尽管基于水凝胶的材料通常缺乏生物功能提示，但它们被广泛用于模拟骨组织工程中的细胞外基质。在作者先前的工作中，马铃薯X病毒（PVX）是一种具有1270个外壳蛋白亚基的柔性杆状生物相容性植物病毒纳米颗粒（VNP），经过基因修饰，可提供用于生成骨替代物的功能肽。在这里，PVX经过精心设计，可呈现矿化和成骨相关的肽，并以低两个数量级的浓度负载在水凝胶中。在二维表面和水凝胶中均证明了其在矿化方面的能力，并且已验证了富集肽在VNP上的优越性，并与游离肽和功能肽较少的VNP进行了比较。当受VNPs刺激时，人间充质干细胞的碱性磷酸酶活性和茜素红染色增加1.2-1.7倍。经过工程改造的PVX粘附在细胞上，并在细胞附近展现出仿生肽的刺激作用。监测VNP在水凝胶中的保留情况，经过几个洗涤步骤后，超过80％的VNP保留在内部。研究了含VNP的水凝胶的机械性能，包括粘度，胶凝温度和压缩切线模量。这项研究表明，重组PVX纳米颗粒是骨组织工程中水凝胶纳米复合材料的出色候选者。