{"doi":"10.1126/sciadv.aaz5894","title":"Evolutionarily conserved sequence motif analysis guides development of chemically defined hydrogels for therapeutic vascularization","abstract":"Biologically active ligands (e.g., RGDS from fibronectin) play critical roles in the development of chemically defined biomaterials. However, recent decades have shown only limited progress in discovering novel extracellular matrix-protein-derived ligands for translational applications. Through motif analysis of evolutionarily conserved RGD-containing regions in laminin (LM) and peptide-functionalized hydrogel microarray screening, we identified a peptide (a1) that showed superior supports for endothelial cell (EC) functions. Mechanistic studies attributed the results to the capacity of a1 engaging both LM- and Fn-binding integrins. RNA sequencing of ECs in a1-functionalized hydrogels showed ~60% similarities with Matrigel in \"vasculature development\" gene ontology terms. Vasculogenesis assays revealed the capacity of a1-formulated hydrogels to improve EC network formation. Injectable alginates functionalized with a1 and MMPQK (a vascular endothelial growth factor-mimetic peptide with a matrix metalloproteinase-degradable linker) increased blood perfusion and functional recovery over decellularized extracellular matrix and (RGDS + MMPQK)-functionalized hydrogels in an ischemic hindlimb model, illustrating the power of this approach.","journal":"Science Advances","year":2020,"id":100817,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":28,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9527,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":494226,"name":"Eun Je Jeon","orcid":"0000-0003-4943-3520","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":494227,"name":"Li Mei","orcid":"0000-0001-7856-8091","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228499,"name":"Dylan Richards","orcid":"0000-0002-5823-0859","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":72342,"name":"Soojin Lee","orcid":"0000-0003-2255-3709","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":494228,"name":"Youngmee Jung","orcid":"0000-0002-4778-4629","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":494229,"name":"Ryan W. Barrs","orcid":"0000-0001-7747-1941","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":229867,"name":"Robert C. Coyle","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":70880,"name":"Xiaoyang Li","orcid":"0000-0003-3684-2106","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":70878,"name":"C. James Chou","orcid":"0000-0001-6808-9089","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":494948,"name":"Michael J. Yost","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":255998,"name":"Sharon Gerecht","orcid":"0000-0002-8542-4835","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":494230,"name":"Seung‐Woo Cho","orcid":"0000-0001-8058-332X","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228510,"name":"Ying Mei","orcid":"0000-0002-8508-4076","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":494225,"name":"Jia Jia","orcid":"0000-0001-7967-4275","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":60,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:39:01.863288Z","pmid":"32923589","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}