Elasticity and Inverse Temperature Transition in Elastin

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• 作者：Stefania Perticaroli ; Georg Ehlers ; Niina Jalarvo ; John Katsaras ; Jonathan D. Nickels
• 刊名：The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：October 15, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：6
• 期：20
• 页码：4018-4025
• 全文大小：543K
• ISSN：1948-7185

文摘

Elastin is a structural protein and biomaterial that provides elasticity and resilience to a range of tissues. This work provides insights into the elastic properties of elastin and its peculiar inverse temperature transition (ITT). These features are dependent on hydration of elastin and are driven by a similar mechanism of hydrophobic collapse to an entropically favorable state. Using neutron scattering, we quantify the changes in the geometry of molecular motions above and below the transition temperature, showing a reduction in the displacement of water-induced motions upon hydrophobic collapse at the ITT. We also measured the collective vibrations of elastin gels as a function of elongation, revealing no changes in the spectral features associated with local rigidity and secondary structure, in agreement with the entropic origin of elasticity.