Collagen Mimetic Peptides

Since their first synthesis in the late 1960s, collagen mimetic peptides (CMPs) have been used as a molecular tool to study collagen, and as an approach to develop novel collagen mimetic biomaterials. Collagen, a major extracellular matrix (ECM) protein, plays vital roles in many physiological and pathogenic processes. Applications of CMPs have advanced our understanding of the structure and molecular properties of a collagen triple helix—the building block of collagen—and the interactions of collagen with important molecular ligands. The accumulating knowledge is also paving the way for developing novel CMPs for biomedical applications. Indeed, for the past 50 years, CMP research has been a fast-growing, far-reaching interdisciplinary field. The major development and achievement of CMPs were documented in a few detailed reviews around 2010. Here, we provided a brief overview of what we have learned about CMPs—their potential and their limitations. We focused on more recent developments in producing heterotrimeric CMPs, and CMPs that can form collagen-like higher order molecular assemblies. We also expanded the traditional view of CMPs to include larger designed peptides produced using recombinant systems. Studies using recombinant peptides have provided new insights on collagens and promoted progress in the development of collagen mimetic fibrillar self-assemblies.