title: Wet-spinning of amyloid protein nanofibers into multifunctional high-performance biofibers.
abstract: Amyloid nanofibers derived from hen egg white lysozyme were processed into macroscopic fibers in a wet-spinning process based on interfacial polyion complexation using a polyanionic polysaccharide as cross-linker. As a result of their amyloid nanostructure, the hierarchically self-assembled protein fibers have a stiffness of up to 14 GPa and a tensile strength of up to 326 MPa. Fine-tuning of the polyelectrolytic interactions via pH allows to trigger the release of small molecules, as demonstrated with riboflavin-5'-phophate. The amyloid fibrils, highly oriented within the gellan gum matrix, were mineralized with calcium phosphate, mimicking the fibrolamellar structure of bone. The formed mineral crystals are highly oriented along the nanofibers, thus resulting in a 9-fold increase in fiber stiffness.
authors.affiliation: Nanoscience Centre, University of Cambridge, 11 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FF, United Kingdom. christoph.meier@uni-ulm.de
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Welland
mesh_terms: D058227:Amyloidogenic Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D002130:Calcium Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry; D002645:Chickens; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D005486:Flavin Mononucleotide / Q000378:metabolism; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009113:Muramidase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties; D013718:Tensile Strength; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D058227:Amyloidogenic Proteins; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002130:Calcium Phosphates; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D005486:Flavin Mononucleotide; D009113:Muramidase; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes; D011108:Polymers; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial; C048288:gellan gum; C020243:calcium phosphate; C421864:hen egg lysozyme