Physical and chemical characterization of adsorbed protein onto gold electrode functionalized with Tunisian coral and nacre

Bone substitutes are more and more used in bone surgery because of their biologic safety, clinic efficiency and facility to synthesize. Bone substitutes with active osteogenic properties, associating biomaterials with organic macromolecule components of the extracellular matrix (protein, GAG) are recommended. Nevertheless, we should have a simple technique to control interactions between proteins and the material. Natural coral and nacre have been found to be impressive bone graft substitutes. In this work, we characterize nacre and coral powder using energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). We used electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy to evaluate bovine serum albumin (BSA) as model protein, adsorbed to these biomaterial surfaces. In order to understand the nacre/coral-protein interfacial compatibility, it is necessary to investigate the wettability. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.