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Development of Adhesive and Conductive Resilin-Based Article Cite This: Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX pubs.acs.org/Biomac Development of Adhesive and Conductive Resilin-Based Hydrogels for Wearable Sensors † † Xiao Hu, Xiao-Xia Xia, Sheng-Chen Huang, and Zhi-Gang Qian* State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences, and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, People’s Republic of China *S Supporting Information ABSTRACT: Integrating multifunctionality such as stretchability, adhesive- ness, and electroconductivity on a single protein hydrogel is highly desirable for various applications, and remains a challenge. Here we present the development of such multifunctional hydrogels based on resilin, a natural rubber-like material with remarkable extensibility and resilience. First, genetically engineered reslin-like proteins (RLPs) with varying molecular weight were biosynthesized to tune mechanical strength and stiffness of the cross-linked RLP hydrogels. Second, glycerol was incorporated into the hydrogels to endow adhesive properties. Next, a graphene−RLP conjugate was synthesized for cross-linking with the unmodified, pristine RLP to form an integrated network. The obtained hybrid hydrogel could be stretched to over four times of its original length, and self-adhered to diverse substrate surfaces due to its high adhesion strength of ∼24 kPa. Furthermore, the hybrid hydrogel showed high sensitivity, with a gauge factor of 3.4 at 200% strain, and was capable of real-time monitoring human activities such as finger bending, swallowing, and phonating. Due to these favorable attributes, the graphene/resilin hybrid hydrogel was a promising material for use in wearable sensors. In addition, the above material design and functionalization strategy may provide intriguing opportunities to generate innovative materials for broad applications. ■ INTRODUCTION atmosphere at temperatures up to 950 °C, and then made into Protein-based materials that are electrically conductive have strain sensors that were highly durable and sensitive, with a gauge factor (GF) of 9.6 for strain within 250%.8 Although recently emerged as promising substrates for applications such 1,2 multiple features were desirably obtained, the silk carbon- as flexible electronics, sensors, and actuators. These ization process is energy intensive, and requires a special applications require the conductive materials to be sensitive, equipment for controlled heating. Another approach is to coat stretchable, recoverable, and preferably adhesive to the protein materials with conducting elements. In an early study, Downloaded via SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIV on May 5, 2019 at 07:41:30 (UTC). complex surfaces of the human body. In particular, high the natural Nephila clavipes dragline silk fibers were uniformly stretchability and sensitivity to deformations are desirable for coated with amine-functionalized multiwalled carbon nano- See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles. real-time monitoring of complex, full-range human motions 9 fi fi 3−5 tubes. The conductivity of the coated bers was reversibly such as nger bending, swallowing, and phonation. sensitive to strain with a GF of 1.2, yet their limited Although many synthetic elastomers with desirable electro- extensibility (a strain of 73%) and specificity (also humidity- mechanical properties have been rapidly developed, these sensitive)9 might restrict the use as strain sensors. Alter- nonprotein materials are not well suited for biological natively, conductive materials can be made by integrating applications due to the lack of biodegradability. To overcome conductive elements into elastic networks of protein polymers. the limitation, protein-based materials with excellent perform- So far, nanomaterials such as metal nanowires6 and low- − ance need to be developed. Indeed, as a biobased and dimentional carbons,10 12 ionic carriers,13 and ionic liquids14 ecofriendly alternative to metal- and synthetic polymer-based have been utilized as conductive elements due to their counterparts, conductive protein-based materials have received 6,7 outstanding electrical properties. Recently, 3D printable an increasing amount of attention in recent years. graphene ink was dispersed in hexafluoroisopropanol or Indeed, many attempts have been made to design and fabricate conductive materials from proteins that are naturally Special Issue: derived or recombinantly biosynthesized. One approach is to ISBP2018 carbonize proteins into conductive graphitic nanocarbons Received: March 19, 2019 directly by thermal treatment. For example, fabrics of cocoon Revised: April 23, 2019 silk were carbonized under an argon and hydrogen mixed Published: April 29, 2019 © XXXX American Chemical Society A DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.9b00389 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX Biomacromolecules Article CaCl2/formic acid solutions of silkworm silk and the resulting ■ MATERIALS AND METHODS suspensions were processed into conductive polymorphic Chemicals and Materials. Ampicillin, ethanol, glycerol (Catalog fi fi 12 materials, such as lms, bers, and coating. In particular, No. A100854), imidazole, and isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside the silk/graphene composite film sensor had a linearly (IPTG) were obtained from Sangon Biotech (Shanghai, China). increased GF from 0.13 to 0.47 during deformation from 0% Dityrosine was purchased as a synthetic standard from WuXi AppTec to 300%. However, the resistance of the film sensor could not Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). Graphene oxide (Catalog No. G0443) be entirely recovered after large deformations, and thus the and 1-(3-(dimethylamino)propyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride capability of cycle use was limited due to high hysteresis and (EDC) were purchased from Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. fi 12 (Tokyo, Japan). N-Hydroxysulfosuccinimide sodium salt (NHS; permanent deformation of the lms. This problem is not Catalog No. M01387), Ni-NTA agarose (Catalog No. 30230), and uncommon for a majority of protein materials because the tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)dichlororuthenium(II) hexahydrate (Catalog No. simply dispersed conductive elements are easily mobile within 224758) were obtained from Meryer Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. the protein materials under deformations and electric field. (Shanghai, China), Qiagen (Hilden, Germany), and Sigma (St. Louis, Thus, the development of conductive protein materials with MO), respectively. Restriction endonucleases and T4 DNA ligase both high sensitivity and stretchability remains a big were obtained from New England Biolabs (Ipswich, MA). Chemically 10−12 competent cells of E. coli DH5α and BL21(DE3), TIANprep Mini challenge, which is also true for the fabrication of fi 15−19 Plasmid Kit and TIANgel Midi Puri cation Kit were purchased from synthetic polymer-based conductive materials. TIANGEN Biotech (Beijing, China). Amicon Ultra-15 centrifugal Resilin is one of the most extensible and resilient protein filter units with Ultracel-3K and Ultracel-10K membranes, and dialysis materials found in specialized regions of the cuticle of most tubing (3.5 kDa and 10 kDa molecular weight cutoff) were obtained − insects.20 22 To decode the genetic information on resilin, the from Millipore (Billerica, MA) and Spectrum Laboratories (Phoenix, fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster CG15920 gene was identified AZ), respectively. as a tentative one encoding a resilin-like protein (RLP).20 Construction of Expression Plasmids. Plasmids pET19b-R8 Later, the first exon of the CG15920 gene was cloned and and pET19b-R32, previously developed for recombinant expression of 21 8 and 32 repeats of the resilin-like sequence (GGRPSDSYG- expressed in bacterium Escherichia coli, and the recombinant APGGGN) under the IPTG-inducible T7 promoter,22 were employed RLP was photo-cross-linked into a rubber-like hydrogel in this study. To express 64 repeats of the resilin-like sequence, biomaterial with resilience (>92%) and extensibility plasmid pET19b-R64 was constructed by ligating the 2.4-kb, PvuI- (∼300%) comparable to that of natural resilin. Similar NheI fragment of plasmid pET19b-R32 with the 6.3-kb, SpeI-PvuI rubber-like properties were also observed in hydrogels fragment of pET19b-R32. fi fi fabricated from recombinant full-length resilin,23 RLPs with Protein Expression, Puri cation, and Identi cation. Each of 24,25 the resilin expression plasmids was transformed into chemically only repetitive consensus motifs of resilin, and even RLPs − 26−28 competent cells of E. coli BL21(DE3), and plated onto a Luria with re-engineered amino acid residues for cross-linking. Bertani (LB) medium solidified with 1.5% agar and supplemented Due to the outstanding extensibility and elastic properties, the with 100 mg L−1 of ampicillin. The transformation plates were RLP hydrogels have shown great potential for applications in incubated overnight at 37 °C in a humidified incubator. The positive − soft tissue engineering,26 29 despite the relative low hydrogel colonies harboring expression plasmids of interest were maintained as strength and stiffness due to the intrinsically disordered feature 15% (v/v) glycerol stocks at −80 °C. of resilin.22,23 To probe the molecular mechanism of resilin Recombinant protein expression was performed in a 5 L jar elasticity, the structure−function relationships have been fermentor (Biotech-5JG-7000; BaoXing Bio-Engineering Equipment, 30 Shanghai, China) with fed-batch cultures.
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