Fig. 1.

Schematic diagrams of the peptide-functionalized Scl2 proteins and resulting hydrogels. (A) Schematic diagram of the Scl2 protein containing heparin-binding and HA-binding peptide sequences. (B) Schematic diagram of the Scl2 protein containing heparin-binding and CS-binding peptide sequences. The ‘CPPC’ domains represent the amino acid sequences inserted at the N and C termini to aid stability of each construct. (C) Generalized structure of the peptide-functionalized Scl2 proteins and hydrogels. For clarity, the homotrimer chains are represented as different colors, and the triple helical motif has been opened out to show the three chains. The approximate locations of the heparin-binding sites are displayed in the construct. The 4-arm acrylate-functionalized MMP7-cleavable and non-cleavable ScrMMP7 peptides were conjugated to the Scl2 proteins via thiol-acrylate reactions to generate hydrogels. The cyclic RGDS peptide was conjugated to the 4-arm acrylate-functionalized MMP7-cleavable and non-cleavable ScrMMP7 peptides via thiol-acrylate reactions. It should be noted that there can be multiple different permutations for the cleaved RGDS peptide products i.e., with and without the Scl2 protein. Adapted from [35]. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)