Moradian-Oldak Janet, Du Chang, Falini Giuseppe
Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
Eur J Oral Sci. 2006 May;114 Suppl 1:289-96; discussion 327-9, 382. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0722.2006.00285.x.
We recently reported the remarkable spontaneous self-assembly and hierarchical organization of amelogenin 'microribbons' and their ability to facilitate oriented growth of apatite crystals in vitro. In a letter of correction we communicated the finding that the X-ray diffraction pattern reported in our original report was that of cellulose contaminant and not amelogenin microribbon. We have re-evaluated our data and confirmed the protein nature of the microribbons using Fourier transform infrared and Raman microspectroscopy. Some microribbons were remarkably similar in their morphology to that of cellulose fibers. The size distribution of amelogenin microribbons was wider, particularly in width and length, and generally smaller than those originally reported. Here we present additional detailed information on the formation of a series of intermediate hierarchical structures of amelogenin assemblies prior to the formation of microribbon. The most significant finding was that full-length amelogenin nanospheres had a tendency to assemble into collinear arrays whose function is assumed to be critical at the initial stage of enamel mineral deposition. The present data gives an insight into the step-by-step assembly process of amelogenin from nanometer scale molecules to micrometer scale organized structures that can be used as templates for controlled and oriented growth of apatite mineralization in vitro.
我们最近报道了牙釉蛋白“微带”显著的自发自组装和层级组织，以及它们在体外促进磷灰石晶体定向生长的能力。在一封更正信中，我们传达了一个发现，即我们原始报告中报道的X射线衍射图谱是纤维素污染物的图谱，而非牙釉蛋白微带的图谱。我们重新评估了我们的数据，并使用傅里叶变换红外光谱和拉曼显微光谱确认了微带的蛋白质性质。一些微带在形态上与纤维素纤维非常相似。牙釉蛋白微带的尺寸分布更宽，尤其是在宽度和长度方面，并且通常比最初报道的更小。在这里，我们提供了关于在微带形成之前牙釉蛋白组装体一系列中间层级结构形成的更多详细信息。最显著的发现是全长牙釉蛋白纳米球倾向于组装成共线阵列，其功能被认为在牙釉质矿化沉积的初始阶段至关重要。目前的数据深入了解了牙釉蛋白从纳米级分子到微米级组织结构的逐步组装过程，这些组织结构可作为体外磷灰石矿化可控和定向生长的模板。
