Influences Of Self-assembled Liquid Crystalline Collagen Films On Cells Behaviors And Its Biomimetic Mineralization

Liquid crystal was the mesophase between liquid and crystal, it was the combination ofmobility and order in nature. Liquid crystal was the pervasive phase in living organisms, it wasalso one of the important structure modalities to keep our vital phenomena. Most of the mineralcrystals and collagen fibers are closely related in bone formation. Studying the formation andfunction of collagen liquid crystal and investigating the combination of collagen liquid crystaland inorganic crystals in detail were crucial to develop new bionic materials and artificial organs.In this work, a series of biomimetic collagen films were prepared. The texture andtopological structure of collagen films were studied by polarizing optical microscopy (POM),scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The relation betweencollagen filmes and3T3cells was studied by MTT method and cytoskeleton fluorescencestaining. The relation between collagen films and osteoblast was studied detailedly by MTTmethod, proliferation index(PI)detection, alkaline phosphatase(ALP)measurement,osteocalcin(OC)assay, inverted microscope observation, SEM observation,AFM observation andcytoskeleton fluorescence staining.The results showed that the collagen liquid crystal(LC)membranes presented continuously twisting orientations in cholesteric phases characterized bytypical series of arced patterns. The typical D-periodicity collagen fibers were self-assemblyfollowing a certain direction,they displayed obviously orientation.Compared with the non-LCmembranes, LC membranes not only could promote the cell’ s adhesion and proliferation, butalso the liquid crystalline topological structure had a contact guide effect to both3T3cells andosteoblast. The unique collagen fiber structure and arrangement in liquid crystal films effectedthe form of inorganic crystals.