Structure of high density fibrin networks probed with neutron scattering and rheology

Fibrin structural and diffusional analysis suggests that fibers are permeable to solute transport

“…for fiber radii and the number of protofibrils are in line with those from literature [17,18,23,27] and the same trends were observed for the influence of thrombin on these two parameters ( Fig. 5a and b) [17].…”

“…The structural and mechanical properties of fibrin hydrogels have been studied extensively [16,18,20,23,27,35], because of the importance of fibrin in blood coagulation and its potential in tissue engineering applications. However, so far, the relation between fibrin structure and diffusivity has not been studied extensively.…”

“…A few models have been proposed for the internal protofibril packing structure within a fiber [18,27,44]. It was suggested that when the protofibrils are not tightly packed (i.e., at lower fiber densities), the crystalline structure of the protofibrils is maintained, but with defects (i.e., empty protofibril spaces) within the fiber.…”

“…In the case of fibrin, water exists not only in the space between fibers but also within the individual fibers that constitute the hydrogel. It has been estimated that only a small part of the actual fiber volume, between 10 and 30 vol %, is occupied by the protein with the rest being taken up by water [18,27,28]. Several studies have focused on unraveling the details of the internal fiber structure, showing that it is strongly influenced by the concentrations of fibrinogen and thrombin as well as the ionic strength during polymerization [17,18,27].…”

Development of a confocal rheometer for soft and biological materials

“…[2][3][4] Scattering methods are particularly powerful for investigating average structural changes, such as conformational changes in protein networks [5] and the bulk phase behavior of worm-like micelles. [6] If the material is inherently disordered, which is the case for most soft and biological materials, scattering can only provide spatially averaged information that generally precludes details about localized structural rearrangements driven by thermal excitations and external stresses.…”