Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study on the Competitive Adsorption Behavior of Albumin and Fibrinogen Near Nanostructure Surfaces

Recently, serval studies reported that the surface topography has a significant effect on the competitive adsorption of protein, especially when the characteristic length of topography is closed to that of protein. However, both macro experiment and micro molecular dynamics simulation are not suitable for investigating such competitive adsorption. Hence, we propose a mesoscopic model, based on the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method, to link the macroscopic experiment to the microscopic simulation, focusing on the competitive properties of albumin and fibrinogen on the surface with different nanostructures. In the plane surface, the probability and the duration of albumin contacting the surface are larger than that of fibrinogen, so albumin firstly adsorbs on the surface, but the fibrinogen gradually replaces the adsorbed albumin by the Vroman effect. The nanostructure increases the surface area, restricts the protein diffusion in the structure, and provides adsorption sites, all of which are beneficial to the albumin adsorption. Therefore, with the structure width decreasing, the structures increase the advantage of albumin in competitive adsorption. Meanwhile, compared with nanocolumn structures, nanotube structures are more conducive to albumin adsorption. In conclusion, DPD simulation can explain existing experimental results and may contribute to the further development of biomaterials