Quantifying Fibrillar Alignment in Gel Noodles Using SANS2D for Advanced Cell Culture

Recent advancements in aligning supramolecular peptide gels into 1D structures, such as 'gel noodles', have opened new possibilities in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Fibrillar alignment within these gels mimics the extracellular matrix, supporting cell growth and guiding cellular behaviour. In our recent work, we gained structural insights into these gel noodles using SANS2D at ISIS (experiment no. RB2410140; Biomacromolecules 2024, 25, 3169–3177). During this beamtime, additional data showed that fibrillar alignment in 2NapFF gel noodles can be effectively quantified using SANS2D. Now, we aim to correlate the mechanical strength of the 1D noodles with fibrillar arrangement and leverage this alignment in directing cell growth. However, initial C2C12 cell culture attempts failed, as the 2NapFF noodles fragmented in culture media. To address this, we functionalised peptide gelators by modifying the amino acid side chains and N-protecting aromatic groups. Gel noodles formed from 2NapFFK remained stable for over two weeks and exhibited excellent cell adhesion. While these noodles are promising for cell culture, their fibrillar anisotropy remains unstudied, which is crucial for understanding their role in directing cell migration and cytoskeletal organisation. We request additional SANS beamtime to characterise the alignment in various functionalised gel noodles, correlating structural anisotropy with their ability to direct cell behaviour.