Preparation of Amyloid Fibril Networks

Mirren Charnley; Jay Gilbert; Owen G Jones; Nicholas P Reynolds

doi:10.21769/BioProtoc.2733

Preparation of Amyloid Fibril Networks

Bio Protoc. 2018 Feb 20;8(4):e2733. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2733.

Authors

Mirren Charnley^{1

2}, Jay Gilbert³, Owen G Jones³, Nicholas P Reynolds⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Micro-photonics, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
² Peter MacCallum Cancer Research Centre, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³ Department of Food Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA.
⁴ ARC Training Centre for Biodevices, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.

Abstract

Networks of amyloid nanofibrils fabricated from common globular proteins such as lysozyme and β-lactoglobulin have material properties that mimic the extracellular microenvironment of many cell types. Cells cultured on such amyloid fibril networks show improved attachment, spreading and in the case of mesenchymal stem cells improved differentiation. Here we describe a detailed protocol for fabricating amyloid fibril networks suitable for eukaryotic cell culture applications.

Keywords: Amyloid fibrils; Biomaterials; Biomimetic materials; Cell attachment; Protein aggregation; Self-assembly; Stem cell culture.