1) Porous scaffold comprising elastin-like domains, silk-like domains and mussel-like domains, cell binding motifs, e.g. RGD, laminin, heparin-binding motif, and non-avidin biotin-binding motif.
2) The presence of a cross-linked elastin-silk-mussel scaffold, even without cell attachment motifs, alone or together with collagen type II induces the differentiation of human Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells to chondrocytes in differentiation medium (A) as well as in normal medium (B), as observed by Alcian blue staining and detection of mRNA biomarkers of chondrogenesis by real-time PCR.
In the case of dog adipose-derived stem cells, it was observed by Alcian blue staining, only the combination of a cross-linked elastin-silk-mussel scaffold together with collagen type II induced the differentiation to chondrocytes. The induction was better in differentiation medium (A) than in normal medium (B).
3) A “mechanism” that can warn on occasion that a biomaterial is infected with pathogenic microorganisms was constructed. This “mechanism” is composed of DMPC micelles that incorporate tricosadyinoic acid (TCDA). TCDA is a lipid that when it is polymerized to polydiacetylene (PDA) can change colour from blue to red upon the presence of secreted toxins of pathogenic bacteria. In this way, one can be warned that a material is infected by observation of the change of the colour. S. aureus was grown and quantities of supernatant bacterial growth medium as well as bacteria S. aureus were incubated with DMPC-PDA micelles. The scaffold that was prepared was also infected with S. aureus to check on the ability of the constructed “mechanism” to warn us about the presence of toxins of S. aureus by optical observation of the colour, at different incubation temperatures (up: room temperature, down: 37 oC).
