Bacterial surface layer proteins as a novel capillary coating material for capillary electrophoretic separations

摘要

A novel concept for stable coating in capillary electrophoresis, based on recrystallization of surface layer proteins on hydrophobized fused silica capillaries, was demonstrated. Surface layer protein A (SlpA) from Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria was extracted, purified and used for coating pre-silanized glass substrates presenting different surface wettabilities (either hydrophobic or hydrophilic). Contact angle determination on SlpA-coated hydrophobic silica slides showed that the surfaces turned to hydrophilic after coating (53 +/- 5 degrees), due to a protein monolayer formation by protein-surface hydrophobic interactions. Visualization by atomic force microscopy demonstrated the presence of a SlpA layer on methylated silica slides displaying a surface roughness of 0.44 +/- 0.02 nm. Additionally, a protein layer was visualized by fluorescence microscopy in methylated silica capillaries coated with SlpA and fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled. The SlpA-coating showed an outstanding stability, even after treatment with 20 mM NaOH (pH 12.3). The electroosmotic flow in coated capillaries showed a partial suppression at pH 7.50 (3.8 +/- 0.5 10(-9) m(2) V-1 s(-1)) when compared with unmodified fused silica (5.9 +/- 0.1 10(-8) m(2) V-1 s(-1)). To demonstrate the potential of this novel coating, the SlpA-coated capillaries were applied for the first time for electrophoretic separation, and proved to be very suitable for the isotachophoretic separation of lipoproteins in human serum. The separations showed a high degree of repeatability (absolute migration times with 1.1-1.8% coefficient-of-variation (CV) within a day) and 2-3% CV inter-capillary reproducibility.The capillaries were stable for more than 100 runs at PH 9.40,and showed to be an exceptional alternative for challenging electrophoretic separations at long-term use.