AVS 46th International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Group Tuesday Sessions
       Session BI-TuM

Paper BI-TuM7
New Platform Technology for the Investigation of Initial Interaction of Adsorption and Cross Linking of Strong Adhesives at Solid Surfaces

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 10:20 am, Room 613/614

Session: Protein Solid-Surface Interactions II
Presenter: H. Elwing, Goteborg University, Sweden
Authors: H. Elwing, Goteborg University, Sweden
F. Hook, Goteborg University, Sweden
Correspondent: Click to Email
The contacting area between an implanted biomaterial and the surrounding tissue is of critical importance for the functional success of the biomaterial. We try to develop tissue "glues" and we get our biomimic inspiration from marine organisms. Several marine animals and plants living at hard rocks, or man made material have developed successful glues or adhesives for contacting the hard surface. There must be at least two conditions fulfilled for strong adhesion of marine organisms to a flat solid surface. Firstly there must be sufficient strength of molecular adhesion at the liquid/solid interface. Secondly it is required that the adhered molecules are cross-linked at the surface and into the tissue of the organism. We have concentrated our effort to understand more about the cross-linking mechanisms. Unfortunately there are few methods available for measuring cross-linking of biopolymers in real time, which have made research difficult. Consequently, as a first step we have developed a methodological combination of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and Quarts chrystal microbalance (QCM-D) for simplified analysis of adsorption and cross-linking of marine adhesives, such as mussel adhesive proteins and Barnacle cement, adsorbed as monolayers on flat solid surfaces.