Construction of a tissue-specific transcription factor-tethered extracellular matrix protein via coiled-coil helix formation.

Tissue-specific transcription factors are key regulators of cellular differentiation. Previously, we succeeded in introducing basic helix-loop-helix tissue-specific transcription factor proteins into cells to induce cellular differentiation. Based on these results, we decided to focus on the use of tissue-specific transcription factor proteins in the construction of biomaterials. In this proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate the construction of a tissue-specific transcription factor-tethered extracellular matrix protein. Here, the tissue-specific transcription factor Olig2 was tethered to a designed artificial extracellular matrix protein via coiled-coil helix formation. Tethered Olig2 was introduced into mouse embryonic carcinoma P19 cells attached to our designed extracellular matrix protein, and was shown to exhibit the ability to induce neural differentiation.