摘要
天然高分子水凝胶以其良好的生物相容性以及生物可降解性在生物医学领域得到了广泛应用,然而由于缺乏合适的观测手段,目前对于纳米尺度下天然状态水凝胶的精细结构及其特性仍然不完全清楚.原子力显微镜(atomic force microscopy,AFM)的出现为生物材料研究提供了新的强大技术手段,但目前利用AFM对天然高分子水凝胶纳米结构进行原位成像的研究还较为缺乏.本文利用AFM对4种不同类型食虫植物(茅膏菜、捕虫堇、瓶子草、捕蝇草)分泌的天然水凝胶黏液的结构进行了高分辨率原位成像与分析.分别将茅膏菜黏液和捕虫堇黏液平铺至云母表面,在空气中进行的AFM成像结果清晰地显示,茅膏菜黏液和捕虫堇黏液中均含有大量纳米纤维结构,且纳米纤维自组装行为具有多样性.分别将瓶子草黏液和捕蝇草黏液平铺至载玻片表面,在去离子水溶液中进行的AFM成像结果揭示了瓶子草黏液和捕蝇草黏液中均含有大量纳米颗粒,对纳米颗粒进行的统计分析显示,捕蝇草黏液中的纳米颗粒尺寸显著大于瓶子草黏液中纳米颗粒的尺寸.研究结果加深了人们对食虫植物分泌的天然水凝胶黏液的认识,为天然生物材料精细纳米结构研究提供了新的方法和视角.
Natural hydrogels have been widely applied in the field of biomedicine for their biocompatible and biodegradable characteristics.However,due to the lack of adequate observation tools,so far the detailed organizations and structures of native natural hydrogels at the nanoscale are still not fully understood.The advent of atomic force microscopy(AFM)provides a novel powerful tool for characterizing biomaterials,but studies about utilizing AFM to investigate the nanostructures of native natural hydrogels are still scarce.In this paper,AFM in situ high-resolution imaging was used to reveal the nanoscopic fine structures of the natural hydrogels secreted by four types of carnivorous plants(Drosera capensis,Pinguicula cyclosecta,Sarracenia rubra,and Dionaea muscipula).Mucilage secreted by Drosera capensis or Pinguicula cyclosecta was coated on the surface of mica,and the subsequent AFM imaging of the mucilage-coated mica in air clearly revealed that both the mucilage secreted by Drosera capensis and Pinguicula cyclosecta contained a large number of nanofibers which had diverse self-assembly behaviors.Nectar secreted by Sarracenia rubra or Dionaea muscipula was coated on the surface of glass slides,and AFM images of the nectar-coated glass slide recorded in deionized water showed that both the nectar secreted by Sarracenia rubra and Dionaea muscipula considerably contained nanoparticles.Statistical results showed that the size of nanoparticles in the nectar of Dionaea muscipula was significantly larger than that of nanoparticles in the nectar of Sarracenia rubra.The study improves our understanding of the natural hydrogels secreted by carnivorous plants and provides a novel approach for characterizing the nanostructures of natural biomaterials in their native states,offering new possibilities for the studies of supramolecular biomaterials.
作者
李密
席宁
王越超
刘连庆
LI Mi;XI Ning;WANG Yue Chao;LIU Lian Qing(State Key Laboratory of Robotics,Shenyang Institute of Automation,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shenyang 110016,China;Institutes for Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shenyang 110169,China;University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China;Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering,The University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong 999077,China)
出处
《中国科学：生命科学》
CSCD
北大核心
2020年第6期650-660,共11页
Scientia Sinica(Vitae)
基金
国家自然科学基金(批准号:61922081,61873258,U1613220,91748212)
中国科学院前沿科学重点研究计划(批准号:ZDBS-LY-JSC043)
中国科学院青年创新促进会(批准号:2017243)
辽宁省“兴辽英才计划”项目(批准号:XLYC1907072)资助。
作者简介
联系人:李密,limi@sia.cn;联系人:刘连庆,lqliu@sia.cn。
