HELP (Human Elastin-like Polypeptide) as a key component in matrices for regenerative medicine

Genetically engineered proteins represent a new promising class of biomaterials that overcome the disadvantages of naturally derived biopolymers (potential pathogens transmission, immune reactions, etc). These engineered macromolecules contain repeated natural sequence motifs that induce a regular structure and self-assembly capability. Many recent examples show the potentiality of application of elastinlike polypeptides (ELP) for a wide range of biomedical applications that exploit their features. This work aims at designing and producing, by recombinant DNA methodology, a human elastin-like artificial protein (HELP) as starting material for the preparation of self-assembled or crosslinked matrices to be used in regenerative medicine. On the basis of the VAPGVG sequence (the most structurally regular occurring region of the human tropoelastin) a synthetic gene was designed, cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The obtained artificial HELP protein (an eight block protein polymer, MW \ubb 45000 Da) includes substrate amino acids (K, lysine and Q, glutamine) for enzymatic crosslinking