Analysis of rat plasma proteins desorbed from gold and methyl- and hydroxyl-terminated alkane thiols on gold surfaces.

It is believed that adsorbed blood or plasma components, such as water, peptides, carbohydrates and proteins, determine key events in the concomitant inflammatory tissue response close to implants. The aim of the present study was to develop a procedure for the collection and analysis of minor amounts of proteins bound to solid metal implant surfaces. The combination of a sodium dodecyl sulfate washing method coupled with a polyacylamide gel electrophoretic protein separation technique (SDS-PAGE), Western blot and image analysis enabled the desorption, identification and semiquantification of specific proteins. The analyzed proteins were albumin, immunoglobulin G, fibrinogen and fibronectin. Concentration procedures of proteins were not required with this method despite the small area of the test surfaces. The plasma proteins were adsorbed to pure gold and hydroxylated and methylated gold surfaces, which elicit different tissue responses in vivo and plasma protein adsorption patterns in vitro. The image analysis revealed that the pure gold surfaces adsorbed the largest amount of total and specific proteins. This is in accordance with previous ellipsometry/antibody experiments in vitro. Further, the principles described for the protein analysis can be applied on implant surfaces ex vivo. Copyright 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers