Project Details
Projekt
Characterization of the interaction of polysaccharides with dental materials including consecutive or simultaneous adsorption of proteins
Subject Area
Biomaterials
Term
from 2017 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 392066266
Polysaccharides are one of the main classes of biopolymers, together with proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. Polysaccharides are on the one hand main constitutents of all living organisms and play, on the other hand, an important role in bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation. However, studies about carbohydrate interaction with solid substrates is very much underrepresented in literature if compared to the other natural biopolymers, i.e. nucleic acids and proteins. Although there were efforts to understand the biological function of carbohydrates, there is a lack of investigations of their interaction with solid substrates. In particular there are no systematic experiments with respect to type of carbohydrate and chain length/molecular weight. The aim of this project is thus to undertake for the first time systematic studies on the importance of carbohydrates and in particular the interaction between carbohydrates and proteins in the context of the initial bioadhesion processes on solid substrates. For this purpose, we will elucidate in detail the initial interaction of polysaccharides such as dextrans of different molecular weight and alginate, with surfaces of dental materials. The involved processes and forces will be studied as a function of the clinically relevant parameters pH, material, concentration of Ca ions and in particular proteins also present in the solution to find out which influence they have on the adsorption of polysaccharides, because in preliminary experiments we could find changes in composition and total mass if proteins were added to the experiment.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
