Surface modification of nanofibrous poly(acrylonitrile-co-acrylic acid) membrane with biomacromolecules for lipase immobilization

In this work, poly(acrylonitrile-co-acrylic acid) (PANCAA) was electrospun into nanofibers with a mean diameter of 180 nm. To create a biofriendly microenvironment for enzyme immobilization, collagen or protein hydrolysate from egg skin (ES) was respectively tethered on the prepared nanofibrous membranes in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(dimethyl-aminopropyl) carbodiamine (EDC)/N-hydroxyl succinimide (NHS). Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to verify the surface modification and protein density on the nanofibrous membranes. Lipase from Candida rugosa was then immobilized on the protein-modified nanofibrous membranes by covalent binding using glutaraldehyde (GA) as coupling agent, and on the nascent PANCAA nanofibrous membrane using EDC/NHS as coupling agent, respectively. The properties of the immobilized enzyme were assayed. It was found that different pre-tethered biomacromolecules had distinct effects on the immobilized enzyme. The activity retention of the immobilized lipase on ES hydrolysate-modified nanofibrous membrane increased from 15.0% to 20.4% compared with that on the nascent one, while it was enhanced up to more than quadrupled (activity retention of 61.7%) on the collagen-modified nanofibrous membrane. The kinetic parameter, Km and Vmax, were also determined for the free and immobilized lipases. Furthermore, the stabilities of the immobilized lipases were obviously improved compared with the free one.