University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2013 Plasma Proteins and Their interaction With Synthetic Polymers at the Air-Water interface Zhengzheng Liao University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Physical Chemistry Commons Recommended Citation Liao, Zhengzheng, "Plasma Proteins and Their interaction With Synthetic Polymers at the Air-Water interface" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 774. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/774 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/774 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Plasma Proteins and Their interaction With Synthetic Polymers at the Air-Water interface Abstract The adsorption of proteins and synthetic polymers at the air-water interface (AWI) has broad significance in biomedicine and biotechnology. Protein behavior at the AWI can be guided to control the structure of the two-dimensional biopolymer film. In addition, synthetic polymers affect how plasma proteins act on implant or drug carrier surfaces, and can also decrease the potential for gas embolism. In this thesis, fluorescence microscopy was applied in combination with tensiometry and atomic force microscopy to study plasma proteins at the AWI alone and under the effect of synthetic polymers. First, the morphology of serum albumin layer controlled by the solution conditions was explored by fluorescence microscopy. Heterogeneity at the micron scale was observed for the protein film during adsorption and at educedr concentrations. Moreover, the competition for interfacial area between Pluronic surfactant F-127 and fibrinogen or serum albumin was studied by semi-quantitative confocal fluorescence methods.