Development of Novel Fluorescent Probes for the Analysis of Protein Interactions under Physiological Conditions with Medical Devices

• Published in: Langmuir Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 1420 - 1426
• Main Authors: Mafina, Marc-Krystelle, Hing, Karin A, Sullivan, Alice C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 05.02.2013
• Subjects: Adsorption; Animals; biocompatible materials; bovine serum albumin; Cattle; Chemistry; Chemistry, Physical; Colloidal state and disperse state; desorption; Equipment and Supplies; Exact sciences and technology; fluorescence; fluorescent dyes; Fluorescent Dyes - chemical synthesis; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; General and physical chemistry; hydroxyapatite; medical equipment; Porosity; Porous materials; protein content; Serum Albumin, Bovine - analysis; Surface physical chemistry; Surface Properties; Adsorption; Porous material; Protein
• ISSN: 0743-7463; 1520-5827; 1520-5827
• DOI: 10.1021/la304244s

In this article, a method to analyze protein adsorption on porous, clinically relevant samples under physiologically relevant conditions is described. The use of fluorescent probes was identified as a methodology that would facilitate analysis under a range of conditions including fully competitive conditions where a protein of interest may be labeled in isolation and then allowed to compete with unlabeled proteins on samples that require no specialized surface pretreatment. As a first step, this article describes the covalent labeling of isolated bovine serum albumin (BSA) with fluorescent fluoresceinthioureidoaminocaproic acid, FTCA, giving FTCA-BSA. The fluorescence intensity of FTCA-BSA was then used to monitor the adsorption and desorption of the protein under noncompetitive conditions with two forms of hydroxyapatite discs (silicate-substituted, SA and stoichiometric, HA) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and minimum essential Eagles’ medium (MEM). Noncompetitive conditions were used to facilitate the validation of the technique in which data obtained from these experiments were corroborated against data obtained using an established total protein assay method (Quant-IT kit, Invitrogen). These experiments demonstrated that the FTCA-BSA probe had several advantages including a greater sensitivity at lower concentrations and a considerably longer lifetime. The results also demonstrated that the interaction of BSA with SA and HA was also highly temperature- and media-dependent. Under the most physiologically relevant conditions of MEM at 37 °C, BSA was more readily adsorbed to SA with significant differences between biomaterials, but no differences were observed during the desorption process. The use of this method to analyze adsorption under competitive conditions will be the subject of further investigations.