Macroscopic membranes self-assembled by alginate and a cationic and amphiphilic peptide for cell culture

Peptides self-assembly systems have been explored over the past years in the context of various biological applications, such as tissue engineering and drug delivery. Here we present the development of hierarchically ordered planar and spherical macroscopic membranes constructed by an amphiphilic and cationic β-sheet peptide that spontaneously assembles with the negatively charged alginate biopolymer. These two components generate a condensed film that developed to exhibit perpendicularly oriented fibers under specific conditioning over days. Here we examined the suitability of these spherical and planar membranes to serve as substrates for cell culture applications. Planar and spherical membranes were stable in the cell culture Dulbecco's modified eagle medium, at 37°C, over days. Breast-cancer cells seeded on the peptide and alginate sides of fully developed and non-fully developed planar membrane were viable for more than 2 weeks. In addition, cells were injected into spherical membranes and detected viable close to the rim even at 3 weeks. These results demonstrate the suitability of planar and spherical membranes to serve as a platform, for example, in studying cancer cells in unique niches and alternatively in potential allogeneic cell therapies.