Making novel bio-interfaces through bacterial protein recrystallization on biocompatible polylactide derivative films

Fabrication of novel bio-supramolecular structures was achieved by recrystallizing the bacterial surface protein SbpA on amorphous and semicrystalline polylactide derivatives. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the glass transition temperature (T(g)) for (poly-L-lactide)-PLLA, poly(L,D-lactide)-PDLLA, poly(lactide-co-glycolide)-PLGA and poly(lactide-co-caprolactone)-PLCL was 63 °C, 53 °C, 49 °C and 15 °C, respectively. Tensile stress-strain tests indicated that PLLA, PLGA, and PDLLA had a glassy behaviour when tested below T(g). The obtained Young modulus were 1477 MPa, 1330 MPa, 1306 MPa, and 9.55 MPa for PLLA, PLGA, PDLLA, and PLCL, respectively. Atomic force microscopy results confirmed that SbpA recrystallized on every polymer substrate exhibiting the native S-layer P4 lattice (a = b = 13 nm, γ = 90°). However, the polymer substrate influenced the domain size of the S-protein crystal, with the smallest size for PLLA (0.011 μm(2)), followed by PDLLA (0.034 μm(2)), and PLGA (0.039 μm(2)), and the largest size for PLCL (0.09 μm(2)). quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) measurements indicated that the adsorbed protein mass per unit area (~1800 ng cm(-2)) was independent of the mechanical, thermal, and crystalline properties of the polymer support. The slowest protein adsorption rate was observed for amorphous PLCL (the polymer with the weakest mechanical properties and lowest T(g)). QCM-D also monitored protein self-assembly in solution and confirmed that S-layer formation takes place in three main steps: adsorption, self-assembly, and crystal reorganization. Finally, this work shows that biodegradable polylactide derivatives films are a suitable support to form robust biomimetic S-protein layers.