title: Biomimetic calcium phosphate mineralization with multifunctional elastin-like recombinamers.
abstract: Biomimetic hybrid materials based on a polymeric and an inorganic component such as calcium phosphate are potentially useful for bone repair. The current study reports on a new approach toward biomimetic hybrid materials using a set of recombinamers (recombinant protein materials obtained from a synthetic gene) as crystallization additive for calcium phosphate. The recombinamers contain elements from elastin, an elastic structural protein, and statherin, a salivary protein. Via genetic engineering, the basic elastin sequence was modified with the SN(A)15 domain of statherin, whose interaction with calcium phosphate is well-established. These new materials retain the biocompatibility, "smart" nature, and desired mechanical behavior of the elastin-like recombinamer (ELR) family. Mineralization in simulated body fluid (SBF) in the presence of these recombinamers reveals surprising differences. Two of the polymers inhibit calcium phosphate deposition (although they contain the statherin segment). In contrast, the third polymer, which has a triblock structure, efficiently controls the calcium phosphate formation, yielding spherical hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanoparticles with diameters from 1 to 3 nm after 1 week in SBF at 37 °C. However, at lower temperatures, no precipitation is observed with any of the polymers. The data thus suggest that the molecular design of ELRs containing statherin segments and the selection of an appropriate polymer structure are key parameters to obtain functional materials for the development of intelligent systems for hard tissue engineering and subsequent in vivo applications.
authors: GIR Bioforge, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
authors: Susana
authors: S
authors: Prieto
authors: Andriy
authors: A
authors: Shkilnyy
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Rumplasch
authors: Artur
authors: A
authors: Ribeiro
authors: F Javier
authors: FJ
authors: Arias
authors: J Carlos
authors: JC
authors: Rodríguez-Cabello
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Taubert
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002130:Calcium Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry*; D004549:Elastin / Q000737:chemistry*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D018716:Molecular Mimicry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D002130:Calcium Phosphates; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004549:Elastin; C020243:calcium phosphate