A comparative study on the effect of roughness andhydrophobicity of a polymeric surface on protein adsorption:a molecular dynamics study

Specific protein adsorption can play a major role in eventual success or failure of biomaterials. As modern tissue engineering is going toward employment of polymeric scaffolds, the needs for evaluation of the interactions between polymer-protein systems become more vital. In this study molecular dynamics simulations are performed on 5 different amorphous polymeric surfaces to examine and compare theeffects of surface nano-scale roughness and hydrophobicity on the protein adsorption. In this regard, adhesion energy and final conformation of a subdomain of human serum albumin at the end of simulations are studied. Results indicate that effect of surface hydrophobicity on protein rearrangements and interactions with the surface is more dominant in comparison to the surface roughness.

Keywords:

nanoroughness , molecular dynamics simulation , polymeric surface , hydrophobicity , proteinadsorption