Biomimetic Virus-Based De Novo Niche for Soft Tissue Engineering

Extracellular niches play a crucial role in overcoming the surrounding harsh pathological environments as well as for stem cell differentiation and other important functions. Nanofibrous arginine-glycine-aspartic acid-engineered M13 phage has recently been considered as an extracellular matrix-mimicking bioinspired nanofiber that serves as an instructive tissue engineering material, providing a vascular niche and cytoprotective function at injured sites, which is an essential option for stem cell therapy. Herein, the novel and essential therapeutic cues provided by an engineered phage are exploited, contributing to de novo<br/>soft tissue niche engineering, where the interplay of biomimetic phage cues with sur-rounding organ tissues is identified and cells are implanted between tissues to achieve an appropriate soft tissue niche that enables the proper functioning of the implanted stem cells at the injured site. These biomimetic phage nanofiber cues are considerably supportive for cell therapy, as they establish promising therapeutic extracellular de novo soft tissue niches for curing ischemic diseases.