Adsorption Behaviour of Creatine Phosphokinase onto Silicon Wafers:Comparison between Ellipsometric and Atomic Force Microscopy Data

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Protein adsorption plays a major role in a variety of important technological and biological processes [1-2] and the understanding of the fundamental factors that determine protein adsorption are imperative to the development of biocompatible materials and biotechnological devices [3-4] as for example biosensors [5]. The adsorption of proteins on surfaces is a complex process. Due to the large size and different shapes of these adsorbing particles, the interactions between the adsorbed proteins on the surface can be strongly influentiated by the fact that the particles may undergo conformational changes upon adsorption [6-7]. In a previous work the adsorption behaviour of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) onto hydrophilic (silicon wafers and amino-terminated surfaces) and hydrophobic (Polystyrene, PS, coated wafers) substrates was investigated by means of null-ellipsometry and contact angle measurements [8]. This previous ellipsometric study led to a model, where CPK adsorption takes place in four stages: (i) a diffusive one, where all the arriving biomolecules are immediately adsorbed; (ii) the arriving biomolecules might stick on the latter and afterward diffuse to the free sites on the substrate, followed by conformational changes [6-7], (iii) formation of a monolayer and (iv) continuous and irreversible adsorption. A multilayer system might be formed, as well as aggregation processes might play a role at this stage. In this work Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) measurements under water were done in order to confirm this four steps model and to observe changes in the film topography and homogeneity along the adsorption process. The thickness of the adsorbed CPK biofilm obtained by ellipsometry was also compared with that obtained by the wet AFM method.