Viscoelastic properties and gelation of an elastin-like polypeptide
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Tropoelastin, the native monomeric form of elastin, and elastin-like polypeptides undergo a process of temperature-induced phase separation (coacervation) resulting in self-organization of a polymeric network that can subsequently be cross-linked into an elastomeric polymer. In this study, the rheological properties of a recombinantly produced polypeptide mimicking the sequences and domain arrangements of tropoelastin were investigated to understand post-coacervation changes in structure and assembly. This polypeptide, designated EP20-24-24, consisted of three hydrophobic domains of native human tropoelastin flanking two cross-linking domains. Temperature-induced formation of coacervate droplets resulted in a small increase in viscosity. A higher temperature produced a second temperature-dependent transition (Tv) to a gel state characterized by a much higher viscosity, strong shear thinning, and a high ratio of storage to loss moduli. This gel state was fully reversible if the temperature was immediately lowered. However, incubation above Tv for 60 min resulted in a further transformation of the network, limiting thermal reversibility of the gelation process. These results demonstrate that for elastin-like polypeptides mimicking the sequence and domain arrangements of tropoelastin, temperature-induced coacervation and transition of the coacervate to a gel-like state are distinguishable events with separate transition temperatures. Moreover, gels formed by these elastin-like polypeptides undergo a process of maturation, reducing the reversibility of the gel state.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".