Nanomechanical stimulus accelerates and directs the self-assembly of silk-elastin-like nanofibers.
One-dimensional nanostructures are ideal building blocks for functional nanoscale assembly. Peptide-based nanofibers have great potential in building smart hierarchical structures due to their tunable structures at the single residue level and their ability to reconfigure themselves in response to environmental stimuli. We observed that pre-adsorbed silk-elastin-based protein polymers self-assemble into nanofibers through conformational changes on a mica substrate. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the rate of self-assembly was significantly enhanced by applying a nanomechanical stimulus using atomic force microscopy. The orientation of the newly grown nanofibers was mostly perpendicular to the scanning direction, implying that the new fiber assembly was locally activated with directional control. Our method provides a novel way to prepare nanofiber patterned substrates using a bottom-up approach.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, United States.
Jonathan
J
Chang
Xiu-Feng
XF
Peng
Karam
K
Hijji
Joseph
J
Cappello
Hamidreza
H
Ghandehari
Santiago D
SD
Solares
Joonil
J
Seog
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D004549:Elastin / Q000737:chemistry*; D007700:Kinetics; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry*
D010446:Peptide Fragments; D047011:Silk; D004549:Elastin
J Am Chem Soc. 2007 Oct 10;129(40):12200-10
17850149
J Am Chem Soc. 2007 Jan 31;129(4):738-9
17243791
Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct. 2006;35:389-415
16689642
J Am Chem Soc. 2002 Jun 19;124(24):6846-8
12059204
J Struct Biol. 2004 Dec;148(3):268-78
15522775
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2008;47(23):4397-400
18449872
Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Feb 13;102(6):060801
19257574
Pharm Res. 2008 Mar;25(3):692-9
17404809
Langmuir. 2009 Nov 3;25(21):12682-6
19803470
Nat Biotechnol. 2003 Oct;21(10):1171-8
14520402
Langmuir. 2008 Dec 2;24(23):13276-8
18973309
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Apr 15;100(8):4527-32
12672964
Langmuir. 2008 May 20;24(10):5418-21
18407679
J Phys Chem B. 2007 Mar 8;111(9):2125-9
17291035
Chem Soc Rev. 2009 Feb;38(2):402-21
19169457
Nat Mater. 2003 Sep;2(9):577-85
12951599
J Control Release. 2009 Dec 16;140(3):256-61
19470397