SELF-COMPLEMENTARY OLIGOPEPTIDE MATRICES SUPPORT MAMMALIAN-CELL ATTACHMENT

A new class of ionic self-complementary oligopeptides is described, tw o members of which have been designated RAD16 and EAK16. These oligope ptides consist of regular repeats of alternating ionic hydrophilic and hydrophobic amino acids and associate to form stable beta-sheet struc tures in water. The addition of buffers containing millimolar amounts of monovalent salts or the transfer of a peptide solution into physiol ogical solutions results in the spontaneous assembly of the oligopepti des into a stable, macroscopic membranous matrix. The matrix is compos ed of ordered filaments which form porous enclosures. A variety of mam malian cell types are able to attach to both RAD16 and EAK16 membranou s matrices. These matrices provide a novel experimental system for ana lysing mechanisms of in vitro cell attachment and may have application s in in vivo studies of tissue regeneration, tissue transplantation an d wound healing.