Lecture
Over
the last years, the interest in materials consisting of biomolecules arranged
in nanofibers increased. These materials have broad potential applications in
materials science, tissue engineering and biomedical engineering, for instance,
as scaffolds for cell cultures or drug delivery, as biosensors and as
functional templates for other materials. There is a special focus on plasma
proteins for applications in nanofiber materials because of their high
biocompatibility. An easy feasible strategy to create these nanofibers is the
self-assembly mechanism of protein molecules. Furthermore, the understanding of
this little-known mechanism is fundamental.
Here
we test the hypothesis that novel self-assembled hybrid protein nanofibers (PNNF)
can consist of two different proteins.
The PNNFs
were produced by incubating different plasma protein combinations in a mixture
of Millipore water and ethanol by elevated temperatures for various time
periods. For atomic force microscopy and tip enhanced raman spectroscopy measurements
the self-assembled PNNFs were dropped onto activated silicon as well as cleaned
and activated glass substrates. Mechanical and biological properties were
analysed.
In
this work we present, for the first time, self-assembled plasma PNNF in the
presence of a second protein. A novel PNNF hybrid will be presented too. Further,
long-time CD-measurements provide information about the fiber formation
dynamics. Especially, for the PNNF hybrid it confirmed interactions between
both molecules. Additionally, the influence of the second protein on the
properties of the novel hybrid PNNF is shown.
We
demonstrated the possibility to create self-assembled PNNFs in the presence of two
different plasma proteins. Further, we confirmed the existence of a novel PNF
hybrid. These results lay the foundation for a novel biomaterial based on these
PNF/PNF hybrids.
