Effect of chitosan on the fibrinogen structure and conformation

Chitosan is a beneficial biopolymer that recognized as functional biomaterials because of biocompatibility, biodegradability and non-toxicity. Chitosan that carry out in vivo would contact with blood components like fibrinogen. Fibrinogen is a crucial clotting protein that plays an important role in the anticoagulant control in controlling bleeding and accelerating the process of clotting and repairing the skin at the wound site. Also chitosan with antimicrobial and wound-healing effect is used for wound dressing for accelerating the wound healing. So the interaction study of chitosan with fibrinogen and investigation on the structural change of protein to determine the appropriate function of fibrinogen for wound healing applications can be important. The present study was aimed to investigate the structural change of fibrinogen by using fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopic techniques. As a result of CD spectroscopy, the conformation and secondary structure of fibrinogen are changed by chitosan. The fluorescence study shows that addition of chitosan to fibrinogen give rise to form complex and cause intensity reduction. This result is due to the coating of tryptophan in the hydrophobic part of the protein by chitosan. These conclusion provide an important vision into the determining the sufficiency and safety of the chitosan for biomedical applications.

Keywords:

Chitosan , Fibrinogen , Conformation , Biopolymer