The ability to fabricate anisotropic collagenous materials rapidly and reproducibly has remained elusive despite decades of research. Balancing the natural propensity of monomeric collagen (COL) to spontaneously polymerize in vitro with the mild processing conditions needed to maintain its native substructure upon polymerization introduces challenges that are not easily amenable with off-the-shelf instrumentation. To overcome these challenges, we have designed a platform that simultaneously aligns type I COL fibrils under mild shear flow and builds up the material through layer-by-layer assembly. We explored the mechanisms propagating fibril alignment, targeting experimental variables such as shear rate, viscosity, and time. Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations were also employed to help understand how initial reaction conditions including chain length, indicative of initial polymerization, and chain density, indicative of concentration, in the reaction environment impact fibril growth and alignment. When taken together, the mechanistic insights gleaned from these studies inspired the design, iteration, fabrication, and then customization of the fibrous collagenous materials, illustrating a platform material that can be readily adapted to future tissue engineering applications.

中文翻译：

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可定制且高度对齐的纤维状胶原蛋白支架的设计和生产

尽管经过了数十年的研究，快速且可重复地制造各向异性胶原材料的能力仍然难以捉摸。平衡单体胶原蛋白 (COL) 在体外自发聚合的自然倾向聚合时维持其天然子结构所需的温和加工条件带来了现成仪器不易应对的挑战。为了克服这些挑战，我们设计了一个平台，可以在温和的剪切流下同时对齐 I 型 COL 原纤维，并通过逐层组装来构建材料。我们针对剪切速率、粘度和时间等实验变量探索了传播原纤维排列的机制。还采用粗粒度分子动力学模拟来帮助理解反应环境中的初始反应条件（包括表示初始聚合的链长和表示浓度的链密度）如何影响原纤维的生长和排列。当放在一起时，