Nano-hydroxyapatite coating synthesized on quasi-fibrillar superstructures of collagen hydrolysate leads to superior osteoblast proliferation when compared to nano-hydroxyapatite synthesized on collagen fibrils

This study had a two-fold objective: To utilize collagen hydrolysate for synthesizing a nanoscale Hydroxyapatite (HA) coating that would act as a superior osteoblast adhesion/proliferation agent compared to collagen-derived HA (C/HA) and to comprehend the significant role played by structural constraints on HA nucleation. Collagen was extracted from pacu skin with a high yield of 65.3% (w/w of tissue). It was digested by collagenase and the hydrolysate (CH) was purified with a high yield of 0.68g/g of collagen. The CH peptides had a mass of 6kDa, a predominant PP-II conformation and formed self-assembling hierarchical structures at physiological pH with dimensions of 842.2{+/-}229nm. The HA synthesized on CH (CH/HA) displayed higher yield when compared to C/HA. Structural analysis of CH/HA revealed that the PP-II peptides coiled to form mimic-helical moieties with reduced intermolecular packing distance of 0.9nm. The mimic helices cross-linked to form a vast quasi-fibrillar network that was comparatively smaller than collagen fibrils but exhibited enhanced stability and greater dynamicity. CH/HA displayed intense calcium-carboxyl interactions, sharper diffraction planes, smaller size of 48{+/-}6.2nm and a Ca/P ratio closer to 1.69 when compared to C/HA along with displaying serrated edge blooming crystals. Because of the small size, the CH/HA nanocrystals displayed significantly better osteoblast adhesion than C/HA and reduced the doubling time of cells. Overall, the results indicated that CH based nanocomposites displayed suitable morphological characteristics and cellular response for potential application as implant and bone graft coating material. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=113 SRC="FIGDIR/small/431097v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (57K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b020c2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@36a899org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@77106aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d6b801_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG