德国莱布尼茨聚合物研究所Carsten Werner团队发现，含胆固醇层的熵排斥抵消生物粘附性。2023年6月21日，《自然》杂志发表了这项成果。
研究人员发现，由胆固醇层的界面定向波动引起的熵排斥限制了蛋白质的吸附和细菌的粘附。此外，研究人员发现，当含有少量（低于10wt%）胆固醇时，具有内在粘性的蜡酯层也同样具有抗生物粘性。润湿、吸附和粘附实验以及原子模拟表明，排斥特性取决于胆固醇的特定分子结构，该结构在无约束的超分子集合体的界面上编码了精细平衡的波动重定向：仅在微小分子变化中不同的胆固醇类似物层显示出明显不同的界面流动性，没有抗粘附作用。此外，方向固定的胆固醇层也不抵消生物粘附。这些见解为生物界面提供了一个概念上新的物理化学观点，并可能指导未来的材料设计来调节粘附性。
据了解，粘附的控制是生物体的一个显著特征，在技术转化方面具有特别的意义。
附：英文原文
Title: Entropic repulsion of cholesterol-containing layers counteracts bioadhesion
Author: Friedrichs, Jens, Helbig, Ralf, Hilsenbeck, Julia, Pandey, Prithvi Raj, Sommer, Jens-Uwe, Renner, Lars David, Pompe, Tilo, Werner, Carsten
Issue&Volume: 2023-06-21
Abstract: Control of adhesion is a striking feature of living matter that is of particular interest regarding technological translation1,2,3. We discovered that entropic repulsion caused by interfacial orientational fluctuations of cholesterol layers restricts protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion. Moreover, we found that intrinsically adhesive wax ester layers become similarly antibioadhesive when containing small quantities (under 10wt%) of cholesterol. Wetting, adsorption and adhesion experiments, as well as atomistic simulations, showed that repulsive characteristics depend on the specific molecular structure of cholesterol that encodes a finely balanced fluctuating reorientation at the interface of unconstrained supramolecular assemblies: layers of cholesterol analogues differing only in minute molecular variations showed markedly different interfacial mobility and no antiadhesive effects. Also, orientationally fixed cholesterol layers did not resist bioadhesion. Our insights provide a conceptually new physicochemical perspective on biointerfaces and may guide future material design in regulation of adhesion.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06033-4
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06033-4
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
