Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- Elastomeric Proteins
- 1 Functions of Elastomeric Proteins in Animals
- 2 Elastic Proteins: Biological Roles and Mechanical Properties
- 3 Elastin as a Self-Assembling Biomaterial
- 4 Ideal Protein Elasticity: The Elastin Models
- 5 Fibrillin: From Microfibril Assembly to Biomechanical Function
- 6 Spinning an Elastic Ribbon of Spider Silk
- 7 Sequences, Structures, and Properties of Spider Silks
- 8 The Nature of Some Spiders' Silks
- 9 Collagen: Hierarchical Structure and Viscoelastic Properties of Tendon
- 10 Collagens with Elastin- and Silk-like Domains
- 11 Conformational Compliance of Spectrins in Membrane Deformation, Morphogenesis, and Signalling
- 12 Giant Protein Titin: Structural and Functional Aspects
- 13 Structure and Function of Resilin
- 14 Gluten, the Elastomeric Protein of Wheat Seeds
- 15 Biological Liquid Crystal Elastomers
- 16 Restraining Cross-Links in Elastomeric Proteins
- 17 Comparative Structures and Properties of Elastic Proteins
- 18 Mechanical Applications of Elastomeric Proteins – A Biomimetic Approach
- 19 Biomimetics of Elastomeric Proteins in Medicine
- Index
19 - Biomimetics of Elastomeric Proteins in Medicine
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- Elastomeric Proteins
- 1 Functions of Elastomeric Proteins in Animals
- 2 Elastic Proteins: Biological Roles and Mechanical Properties
- 3 Elastin as a Self-Assembling Biomaterial
- 4 Ideal Protein Elasticity: The Elastin Models
- 5 Fibrillin: From Microfibril Assembly to Biomechanical Function
- 6 Spinning an Elastic Ribbon of Spider Silk
- 7 Sequences, Structures, and Properties of Spider Silks
- 8 The Nature of Some Spiders' Silks
- 9 Collagen: Hierarchical Structure and Viscoelastic Properties of Tendon
- 10 Collagens with Elastin- and Silk-like Domains
- 11 Conformational Compliance of Spectrins in Membrane Deformation, Morphogenesis, and Signalling
- 12 Giant Protein Titin: Structural and Functional Aspects
- 13 Structure and Function of Resilin
- 14 Gluten, the Elastomeric Protein of Wheat Seeds
- 15 Biological Liquid Crystal Elastomers
- 16 Restraining Cross-Links in Elastomeric Proteins
- 17 Comparative Structures and Properties of Elastic Proteins
- 18 Mechanical Applications of Elastomeric Proteins – A Biomimetic Approach
- 19 Biomimetics of Elastomeric Proteins in Medicine
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
A characteristic feature of elastomeric proteins is the presence of repeating motifs in the amino acid sequence which provide the freely mobile peptide chains that are the basis of their elasticity (see Chapter 17). These repetitive domains are highly ordered and mainly hydrophobic in nature and show an ability to selfassemble. The elastic domains are normally interspersed with short structured or ‘crystalline’ regions, which act as restraining domains. In some cases, the highly ordered ‘crystalline’ domains may also undergo conformational changes during self-assembly to allow subsequent precise intermolecular interactions. When isolated from the protein, these short amino acid sequences have been shown to have the ability to mimic many of the properties of the original protein, such as elastin or silk. More recently, amino acid sequences of both the ‘elastic’ and ‘crystalline’ domains have been probed by modern molecular biology techniques and synthetic polypeptides prepared. These peptides allow researchers to study the control mechanisms of their assembly and the basis of their elastomeric properties, knowledge of which can lead to the evolution of designer peptides for specialised applications. Further modification can be achieved by alteration of the amino acid sequence, or alteration of the amino acid side chains, generally the basic groups of lysine and arginine, and the carboxyl groups. Although several examples have been reported to date, only a few have found application; but this is an exciting field which is expanding rapidly with the advent of recombinant peptides.
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- Information
- Elastomeric ProteinsStructures, Biomechanical Properties, and Biological Roles, pp. 366 - 378Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003