Glucose Suppresses Biological Ferroelectricity in Aortic Elastin

Yuanming Liu, Yunjie Wang, Ming-Jay Chow, Nataly Q. Chen, Feiyue Ma, Yanhang Zhang, and Jiangyu Li

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 168101 – Published 15 April 2013

Abstract

Elastin is an intriguing extracellular matrix protein present in all connective tissues of vertebrates, rendering essential elasticity to connective tissues subjected to repeated physiological stresses. Using piezoresponse force microscopy, we show that the polarity of aortic elastin is switchable by an electrical field, which may be associated with the recently discovered biological ferroelectricity in the aorta. More interestingly, it is discovered that the switching in aortic elastin is largely suppressed by glucose treatment, which appears to freeze the internal asymmetric polar structures of elastin, making it much harder to switch, or suppressing the switching completely. Such loss of ferroelectricity could have important physiological and pathological implications from aging to arteriosclerosis that are closely related to glycation of elastin.

Received 31 July 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.168101

Authors & Affiliations

Yuanming Liu¹, Yunjie Wang², Ming-Jay Chow², Nataly Q. Chen¹, Feiyue Ma¹, Yanhang Zhang^2,3,*, and Jiangyu Li^1,†

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-2600, USA
²Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
³Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA

^*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. yanhang@bu.edu
^†To whom all correspondence should be addressed. jjli@uw.edu

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Vol. 110, Iss. 16 — 19 April 2013

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Images

Figure 1
Piezoelectricity of elastin probed by PFM over a $1 \times 1 μ m^{2}$ sample area. (a) 2D topography mapping obtained by a contact mode PFM scan, showing three elastin fibers; (b) PFM amplitude versus the driving frequency of ac voltage (blue dot), showing enhanced PFM amplitude at resonant frequency; the data are fitted well by the damped harmonic oscillator model (red solid line). (c) Vertical and (d) lateral PFM amplitude mappings overlaid on 3D topography; the area with relatively high vertical (lateral) piezoresponse usually exhibits relatively low lateral (vertical) piezoresponse, suggesting different polar orientations.Reuse & Permissions
Figure 2
Ferroelectric switching of elastin probed by PFM on $32 \times 32$ grid of points over a $10 \times 10 μ m^{2}$ sample area. (a) 3D topography mapping, with schematics on the top showing a sequence of dc voltage in the triangular form applied to switch the polarization, and ac voltage simultaneously applied to measure the corresponding piezoresponse. (b) Phase-voltage hysteresis loops and (c) amplitude-voltage butterfly loops at three representative points, showing characteristics of ferroelectric switching, and switching spectroscopy PFM (SSPFM) mappings of (d) remnant PFM amplitude at zero dc voltage, (e) coercive voltage, and (f) nucleation bias calculated as the average of positive and negative coercive voltages, showing consistent switching throughout the probed area.Reuse & Permissions
Figure 3
SSPFM mapping of $32 \times 32$ grid of points over a $5 \times 5 μ m^{2}$ sample area shows suppression of ferroelectricity in elastin by glucose treatment. (a) 3D topography mapping and SSPFM mappings of (b) remnant amplitude and (c) nucleation bias, where points with no switching characteristics are marked by blue; (d) phase-voltage loops and (e) amplitude-voltage loops at four representative points, showing that switching is suppressed in points 1, 2, and 3 within the blue area, but is observed in point 4 outside of it. (f) Comparison of percentages of points showing no switching characteristics in the control and glucose-treated elastin ( $n = 5$ ) over a $90 \times 90 μ m^{2}$ sample area, with 64 points probed in each sample; the percentage of the no switching points ( $49.68 % \pm 5.54 %$ ) in the glucose-treated elastin is significantly higher than the untreated elastin (0%) ( $p < 0.05$ ).Reuse & Permissions
Figure 4
Correlation between reduced piezoresponse and suppressed ferroelectricity in glucose-treated elastin, as probed by PFM over a $1 \times 1 μ m^{2}$ area. (a) 2D topography mapping; (b) PFM amplitude mapping; (c) PFM amplitude mapping corrected by a quality factor obtained from DHOM, wherein points with no solution from DHOM are marked by blue. (d) Phase-voltage loops and (e) amplitude-voltage loops of four representative points, showing that switching is suppressed in points 3 and 4 within the blue areas, but is observed in points 1 and 2 outside of it.Reuse & Permissions

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