Richterová Veronika, Pekař Miloslav
Institute of Physical and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkynova 464/118, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
Gels. 2024 Sep 24;10(10):611. doi: 10.3390/gels10100611.
In this work, the effect of incorporating silk fibroin, a fibrous biocompatible protein, into physically cross-linked agarose hydrogels was investigated as a simple model study to examine how supramolecular fibrous structures influence the properties of the hydrogels. The rheological and transport properties were studied. Fibroin did not change the general viscoelastic properties of the investigated hydrogels but changed the viscoelastic moduli values and also the mesh size, as calculated from rheometry data. Fibroin influenced the mechanical properties depending on its concentration: at lower concentrations, it increased the mesh size, while at higher concentrations, it acted as a filler, decreasing the mesh size. Similarly, the storage and loss moduli were affected, either increasing or decreasing based on the fibroin concentration. The fibroin effect on the diffusion of two dyes differing in their charge was the result of a combination of structural effects, responsible also for changes in the rheological properties, and a result of electrostatic interactions between the charged groups. For positively charged methylene blue, low fibroin concentrations accelerated diffusion, while higher concentrations slowed it by filling network vacancies. In contrast, for negatively charged eosin-B, fibroin strongly impeded diffusion at all concentrations due to electrostatic repulsion, leading to its accumulation at the hydrogel interface. The findings of this work may contribute to an understanding of the behavior of the extracellular matrix or soft tissues as well as to the development of the tailored design of hydrogel materials.
在这项工作中，作为一项简单的模型研究，我们研究了将丝素蛋白（一种纤维状生物相容性蛋白质）掺入物理交联的琼脂糖水凝胶中的效果，以检验超分子纤维结构如何影响水凝胶的性能。我们研究了流变学和传输特性。丝素蛋白并未改变所研究水凝胶的一般粘弹性，但改变了粘弹性模量值以及根据流变学数据计算出的网孔尺寸。丝素蛋白对机械性能的影响取决于其浓度：在较低浓度下，它会增加网孔尺寸，而在较高浓度下，它起到填料的作用，减小网孔尺寸。同样，储能模量和损耗模量也受到影响，根据丝素蛋白浓度的不同而增加或减小。丝素蛋白对两种电荷不同的染料扩散的影响是结构效应（这也导致了流变学性能的变化）和带电基团之间静电相互作用共同作用的结果。对于带正电荷的亚甲蓝，低浓度的丝素蛋白加速了扩散，而高浓度则通过填充网络空隙减缓了扩散。相比之下，对于带负电荷的曙红 - B，由于静电排斥，丝素蛋白在所有浓度下都强烈阻碍扩散，导致其在水凝胶界面处积累。这项工作的发现可能有助于理解细胞外基质或软组织的行为，以及水凝胶材料定制设计的发展。
