Study of the conformational change of adsorbed proteins on biomaterial surfaces using hydrogen-deuterium exchange with mass spectroscopy

There is no doubt that protein adsorption plays a crucial role in determining biocompatibility of biomaterials. Despite the information of the identity and composition of blood plasma/serum proteins adsorbed on surfaces of biomaterials to understand which proteins are involved in blood/biomaterial interactions, it still does not provide information about the conformations and orientations of adsorbed protein, which are very important in determining biological responses to biomaterials. Therefore, our laboratory has developed an experimental technology to probe protein conformations on materials that is applicable to mixtures of proteins. Herein, the new application of hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange combined with mass spectrometry was applied to determine conformational changes of adsorbed proteins at biomaterial surfaces. The results suggest that there may be a significant conformational change in adsorbed proteins at 'low' bulk concentrations that leads to a large change in the kinetics of H/D exchange as compared to 'high' bulk concentrations. This technique may eventually be useful for the study of the kinetics of protein conformational changes.