Self assembled fibrinogen structures film on selected surfaces in molecule level

The adsorption event of fibrinogen (FG) on well documented model surfaces of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), Mica and 316L SS was analyzed. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM, Digital Instruments (DI) Multi-Mode) was used to image the surface in taping mode and bovine plasma fibrinogen was used as the protein. On the mica surface, adsorption of FG assembly appeared random at various concentrations and on the Stainless Steel and HOPG substrates, a definite self assembled film network of fibrogen molecules were seen. Upon the first inspection, it was observed that hydrophilic surfaces led to a random orientation of adsorption, while hydrophobic surfaces led to a self assembled pattern of protein adsorption.