Seekell Raymond P, Dever Rachel, Zhu Yingxi
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame , Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, United States.
Biomacromolecules. 2014 Jul 14;15(7):2760-8. doi: 10.1021/bm500620e. Epub 2014 Jul 2.
Healthy synovial fluids (SFs) are complex fluids consisting of biopolymers, globule proteins, and lipids and regarded as superlubricants to provide nearly life-long low friction and wear protection of synovial joints in mammals. In this paper, we report that the intricate lubricious mixture can be simulated by the aggregation of hyaluronic acid (HA) and hydrogel particles in aqueous suspensions. In the HA aqueous suspensions added with synthetic polymer microgels, we have effectively captured the bulk rheological properties of healthy SFs. It is also confirmed by light scattering and fluorescence microscopic characterization that added hydrogel particles can enhance the HA network by hydrogel-mediated hydrogen bonding, leading to the fractal HA-hydrogel aggregating networks in aqueous suspensions. The potential application of HA-hydrogel particle aggregates as biomimetic superlubricants is supported by the comparable low friction at high load to that of healthy SFs.
健康的滑液（SFs）是由生物聚合物、球状蛋白质和脂质组成的复杂液体，被视为超级润滑剂，可为哺乳动物的滑膜关节提供近乎终身的低摩擦和磨损保护。在本文中，我们报告了这种复杂的润滑混合物可以通过透明质酸（HA）和水悬浮液中的水凝胶颗粒聚集来模拟。在添加了合成聚合物微凝胶的HA水悬浮液中，我们有效地捕捉到了健康滑液的整体流变特性。光散射和荧光显微镜表征也证实，添加的水凝胶颗粒可以通过水凝胶介导的氢键增强HA网络，导致水悬浮液中形成分形的HA-水凝胶聚集网络。HA-水凝胶颗粒聚集体作为仿生超级润滑剂的潜在应用得到了其在高负荷下与健康滑液相当的低摩擦的支持。
