Early adsorption of collagen on the reduced rutile (110) surface mediated by water: A molecular dynamics study

The adsorption of collagen on the reduced rutile (110) surface with monatomic step defects in aqueous solution was modeled by classical molecular dynamics simulation. The step defects on the rutile surface were mainly parallel to the <11¯1> crystal orientation. Possible binding modes including direct and indirect binding modes, that were the peptide interacted with substrate surface directly or via the first layer water molecules, and the structural properties of collagen were discussed in order to analyze the adsorption dynamics of collagen on the reduced rutile surface. The simulation results suggested that the initial poses of collagen on the rutile surface could influence the adsorption conformation of collagen. The reduced rutile surface, which could increase the density of water molecules in the first layer, would provide active sites for collagen adsorption. The direct binding mode was responsible for the stable adsorption of collagen. The indirect binding mode may play an important part at the initial adsorption stage, but itself alone could not 'trap' the collagen on the surface stably unless the direct binding mode had already been formed. In addition, the triple helical structure of collagen was sustained by the inner-chain hydrogen bonds among different chains.