{"id":1423,"date":"2025-12-18T23:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:51:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:51:40","slug":"self-assembling-elastin-derived-peptide-hydrogels-sustain-delivery-of-collagen-stimulant-in-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/news\/self-assembling-elastin-derived-peptide-hydrogels-sustain-delivery-of-collagen-stimulant-in-skin\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-assembling, elastin-derived peptide hydrogels sustain delivery of collagen-stimulant in skin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Stephenson H, Lim A, Dupuy R, Brun S, Armstrong A, Okunola N, Li NA, Hilkens CMU, Novakovic K, Hills S, Ng KW, Al Musaimi O. Elastin-derived peptide hydrogels for sustained dermal delivery of tetrapeptide-21. Int J Pharm, 2026;689:126490. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.ijpharm.2025.126490<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last year, we published a paper<\/a> with Othman<\/a> and co-workers about a series of elastin-derived peptide (EDPs) capable of self-assembling into hydrogels. We envisaged that the hydrogels could be used to deliver drugs into the skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our follow-on paper<\/a>, published today, confirms that EDPs can indeed not only deliver drugs to the skin, but sustain their release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this paper, we rationally designed and evaluated a series of self-assembling hydrogels made from synthetic peptides. These peptides have been derived from elastin, the natural protein that gives our skin its elasticity. We encapsulated tetrapeptide-21, a collagen-stimulating peptide, in the hydrogel and successfully delivered it across the skin, demonstrating sustained release for at least 72 hours in vitro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collagen production is, of course, critical to solving many skin-related problems, from wrinkle reduction to wound healing. We think this hydrogel technology will find great use in dermatology and aesthetic medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first paper in which we have reported the skin-permeabilising effects of a fractional ablative laser and a motorised microneedle device, in collaboration with Lynton<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also the first paper where Franz diffusion cell (FDC) sampling in the skin permeation experiments was fully automated with Otto in a real-world experiment. Otto is an open-source FDC autosampler robot we have developed in-house from a cartesian 3D printer, some 3D-printed parts and common laboratory consumables. We have previously published its design files<\/a> and validation data<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been a great collaboration with many colleagues. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate and thank everyone who has contributed to this work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image reproduced from Stephenson et al., 2025<\/a> under a CC BY 4.0 licence<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephenson H, Lim A, Dupuy R, Brun S, Armstrong A, Okunola N, Li NA, Hilkens CMU, Novakovic K, Hills S, Ng KW, Al Musaimi O. Elastin-derived peptide hydrogels for sustained dermal delivery of tetrapeptide-21. Int J Pharm, 2026;689:126490. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.ijpharm.2025.126490 Last year, we published a paper with Othman and co-workers about a series of elastin-derived peptide … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Self-assembling, elastin-derived peptide hydrogels sustain delivery of collagen-stimulant in skin”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3965,"featured_media":1424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3965"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1459,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/1459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/kengng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}