Nanomechanical Stimulus Accelerates and Directs the Self-Assembly of Silk-Elastin-like Nanofibers
Citations Over TimeTop 12% of 2011 papers
Abstract
One-dimensional nanostructures are ideal building blocks for functional nanoscale assembly. Peptide-based nanofibers have great potential in building smart hierarchical structures due to their tunable structures at the single residue level and their ability to reconfigure themselves in response to environmental stimuli. We observed that pre-adsorbed silk-elastin-based protein polymers self-assemble into nanofibers through conformational changes on a mica substrate. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the rate of self-assembly was significantly enhanced by applying a nanomechanical stimulus using atomic force microscopy. The orientation of the newly grown nanofibers was mostly perpendicular to the scanning direction, implying that the new fiber assembly was locally activated with directional control. Our method provides a novel way to prepare nanofiber patterned substrates using a bottom-up approach.
Related Papers
- → Influence of Elastin Gene Polymorphism on the Elastin Content of the Aorta(1999)17 cited
- → The elastic system fibres in healthy human gingiva(1990)21 cited
- → Accumulation and Regulation of Elastin in the Rat Uterus(1989)16 cited
- → Development of elastin layers in the aortic wall of human fetuses(1992)7 cited
- → The Molecular Aspects of Elastin Gene Expression(1982)14 cited