MOE Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology, College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610064, P. R. China.
Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2022 Aug 10;24(31):18931-18942. doi: 10.1039/d2cp02573f.
Bone is a typical inorganic-organic composite material with a multilevel hierarchical organization. In the lowest level of bone tissue, inorganic minerals, which are mainly composed of hydroxyapatite, are mineralized within the type I collagen fibril scaffold. Understanding the crystal prenucleation mechanism and growth of the inorganic phase is particularly important in the design and development of materials with biomimetic nanostructures. In this study, we built an all-atom human type I collagen fibrillar model with a 67 nm overlap/gap D-periodicity. Arginine residues were shown to serve as the dominant cross-linker to stabilize the fibril scaffold. Subsequently, the prenucleation mechanism of collagen intrafibrillar mineralization was investigated using a molecular dynamics approach. Considering the physiological pH of the human body (, ∼7.4), HPO was initially used to simulate the protonation state of the phosphate ions. Due to the spatially constrained effects resulting from the overlap/gap structure of the collagen fibrils, calcium phosphate clusters formed mainly inside the hole zone but with different spatial distributions along the long axis direction; this indicated that the nucleation of calcium phosphate may be highly site-selective. Furthermore, the model containing both HPO and PO in the solution phase formed significantly larger clusters without any change in the nucleation sites. This phenomenon suggests that the existence of PO is beneficial for the mineralization process, and so the conversion of HPO to PO was considered a critical step during mineralization. Finally, we summarize the nucleation mechanism for collagen intrafibrillar mineralization, which could contribute to the fabrication of mineralized collagen biomimetic materials.
骨骼是一种典型的具有多层次结构的无机-有机复合材料。在骨骼组织的最低层次,主要由羟磷灰石组成的无机矿物质在 I 型胶原原纤维支架内矿化。理解无机相的晶体成核前机制和生长过程对于设计和开发具有仿生纳米结构的材料尤为重要。在这项研究中,我们构建了一个具有 67nm 重叠/间隙 D-周期性的全原子人 I 型胶原原纤维模型。精氨酸残基被证明是稳定原纤维支架的主要交联剂。随后,我们使用分子动力学方法研究了胶原原纤维内矿化的成核前机制。考虑到人体的生理 pH 值(约 7.4),最初使用 HPO 来模拟磷酸盐离子的质子化状态。由于胶原原纤维的重叠/间隙结构的空间约束效应,磷酸钙簇主要在孔区内部形成,但沿着长轴方向具有不同的空间分布;这表明磷酸钙的成核可能具有高度的位点选择性。此外,溶液相中同时含有 HPO 和 PO 的模型形成了明显更大的簇,而成核位点没有任何变化。这一现象表明 PO 的存在有利于矿化过程,因此 HPO 向 PO 的转化被认为是矿化过程中的一个关键步骤。最后,我们总结了胶原原纤维内矿化的成核机制,这有助于制备矿化胶原仿生材料。