Full Paper

Structural Effects of Crosslinking a Biopolymer Hydrogel Derived from Marine Mussel Adhesive Protein

  1. Elena Loizou1,
  2. Jaime T. Weisser2,
  3. Avinash Dundigalla1,
  4. Lionel Porcar4,
  5. Gudrun Schmidt1,3,*,
  6. Jonathan J. Wilker2,*

Article first published online: 11 SEP 2006

DOI: 10.1002/mabi.200600097

Issue

Macromolecular Bioscience

Macromolecular Bioscience

Volume 6, Issue 9, pages 711–718, September 15, 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Loizou, E., Weisser, J. T., Dundigalla, A., Porcar, L., Schmidt, G. and Wilker, J. J. (2006), Structural Effects of Crosslinking a Biopolymer Hydrogel Derived from Marine Mussel Adhesive Protein. Macromol. Biosci., 6: 711–718. doi: 10.1002/mabi.200600097

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

  2. 2

    Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

  3. 3

    Department of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

  4. 4

    National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA

*Department of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 28 SEP 2006
  2. Article first published online: 11 SEP 2006
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 10 JUL 2006
  4. Manuscript Revised: 8 JUL 2006
  5. Manuscript Received: 29 APR 2006

Funded by

  • Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award
  • National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship and the Lord Corporation
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (219K)

Keywords:

  • crosslinking;
  • hydrogels;
  • microscopy;
  • scattering;
  • viscoelasticity

Abstract

Thumbnail image of graphical abstract

Summary: In an effort to explore new biocompatible substrates for biomedical technologies, we present a structural study on a crosslinked gelatinous protein extracted from marine mussels. Prior studies have shown the importance of iron in protein crosslinking and mussel adhesive formation. Here, the structure and properties of an extracted material were examined both before and after crosslinking with iron. The structures of these protein hydrogels were studied by SEM, SANS, and SAXS. Viscoelasticity was tested by rheological means. The starting gel was found to have a heterogeneous porous structure on a micrometer scale and, surprisingly, a regular structure on the micron to nanometer scale. However disorder, or “no periodic structure”, was deduced from scattering on nanometer length scales at very high q. Crosslinking with iron condensed the structure on a micrometer level. On nanometer length scales at high q, small angle neutron scattering showed no significant differences between the samples, possibly due to strong heterogeneity. X-ray scattering also confirmed the absence of any defined periodic structure. Partial crosslinking transformed the viscoelastic starting gel into one with more rigid and elastic properties.

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (219K)