10.1021/acs.biomac.6b01068.s003 David W. Howell David W. Howell Camille L. Duran Camille L. Duran Shang-Pu Tsai Shang-Pu Tsai Sarah E. Bondos Sarah E. Bondos Kayla J. Bayless Kayla J. Bayless Functionalization of Ultrabithorax Materials with Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Enhances Angiogenic Activity American Chemical Society 2016 vessel formation growth factors gene encoding Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor VEGF-Ubx materials CAM fusion proteins Ubx materials cell migration pattern angiogenesis Ultrabithorax Materials chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane outgrowing sprouts cell survival VEGF-Ubx fibers tissue engineering scaffolds aortic ring assay angiogenic growth factors Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Enhances Angiogenic Activity Current approaches 2016-10-07 00:00:00 Media https://acs.figshare.com/articles/media/Functionalization_of_Ultrabithorax_Materials_with_Vascular_Endothelial_Growth_Factor_Enhances_Angiogenic_Activity/4040628 Successful design of tissue engineering scaffolds must include the ability to stimulate vascular development by incorporating angiogenic growth factors. Current approaches can allow diffusion of growth factors, incorporate active factors randomly, or can leave residual toxins. We addressed these problems by genetically fusing the gene encoding Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) with the Ultrabithorax (Ubx) gene to produce fusion proteins capable of self-assembly into materials. We demonstrate that VEGF-Ubx materials enhance human endothelial cell migration, prolong cell survival, and dose-dependently activate the VEGF signaling pathway. VEGF-Ubx fibers attract outgrowing sprouts in an aortic ring assay and induce vessel formation in a chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the activity of VEGF remains intact in Ubx materials. This approach could provide an inexpensive and facile mechanism to stimulate and pattern angiogenesis.