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Surface Biofunctionalization of Silk Biomaterials Using Dityrosine Cross-Linking
Fatemeh Karimi1, Kieran Lau1, Ha Na Kim1
1Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
|July 6, 2022
Summary
Researchers developed a new method to covalently attach biomolecules to silk materials using dityrosine cross-linking. This technique improves biomaterial functionalization for tissue engineering and medical devices without chemical modification.
Area of Science:
- Biomaterials Science
- Surface Chemistry
- Tissue Engineering
Background:
- Biofunctionalization of silk enhances its utility in tissue engineering and medical devices.
- Current methods like passive adsorption have limitations such as random orientation and molecule displacement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a covalent immobilization technique for biomolecules on silk using dityrosine cross-linking.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of this method for functionalizing silk surfaces.
Main Methods:
- Enzyme- or photoinitiated dityrosine bond formation for covalent immobilization.
- Utilized recombinantly expressed domain V of human perlecan (rDV) as a model biomolecule.
- Compared dityrosine-based immobilization with passive adsorption.
Main Results:
- Successfully achieved covalent immobilization of rDV on silk without modifying the biomolecule or silk.
- Dityrosine immobilization led to a different molecular orientation compared to passive adsorption.
- Immobilized rDV supported endothelial cell adhesion, spreading, migration, and proliferation.
Conclusions:
- Dityrosine-based cross-linking offers a simple and accessible method for covalent immobilization of tyrosine-containing molecules on silk.
- This technique enhances silk biomaterial functionalization for biomedical applications.
