Collagen at interfaces. II: Competitive adsorption of collagen against albumin and fibrinogen.

Adsorption of chemically radiolabeled [14C] collagen from binary mixtures with albumin or fibrinogen was studied on the solution/air and solution/polyethylene interfaces and revealed the preferential adsorption of albumin. This phenomenon is confirmed by the data of surface tension measurements of single protein, collagen-albumin, and collagen-fibrinogen solutions. Desorption experiments clearly show that more irreversibly adsorbed collagen was found on polyethylene surfaces when adsorption was performed from collagen-fibrinogen than from collagen-albumin solutions. The combined adsorption-desorption and the surface tension data show that competitive adsorption of collagen at the hydrophobic surfaces is strongly influenced by the surface tension properties of the proteins in solution.