title: Thermoresponsive synthetic polymer-microtubule hybrids.
abstract: Thermoresponsive hybrids consisting of synthetic polymers and microtubules (MTs), i.e., assemblies of tubulins, were prepared by bonding MTs covalently to a few reactive units in a macromolecular strand. The hybrids exhibited the gel/sol transition because of the "assembling of tubulins to MTs/disintegrating of MTs to tubulins" by the temperature change between 37 and 4 °C, respectively. The viscoelastic behaviors of the hybrid gels depended upon the quantity of polymer feed and the amount of resulting covalent bonds between the polymers and tubulin units. Furthermore, in a confined space of a thin and long rectangular cell with the temperature gradient from 4 °C (cold terminal) to 37 °C (warm terminal), the sol state hybrid turned to the gel state that propagated from the warm terminal toward the cold terminal to form uniaxially oriented MT arrays. Upon changing the temperature of the whole system between 37 and 4 °C, the uniaxial arrays appeared/disappeared reversibly.
authors: Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology , Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan.
authors: Kiyotaka
authors: K
authors: Shigehara
authors: Hiroki
authors: H
authors: Kudoh
authors: Takamasa
authors: T
authors: Sakai
authors: Yoshihito
authors: Y
authors: Osada
authors: Yoshihiko
authors: Y
authors: Murakami
authors: Kazuhiro
authors: K
authors: Shikinaka
mesh_terms: D008870:Microtubules / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers