Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy on horns and their correlation with biomechanical properties

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Abstract
Recently horns are considered as potential candidates for various biomedical applications because of their distinct biomechanical properties. We therefore performed Raman spectral analysis and mechanical test on the horns of buffalo, cattle and sheep to obtain information about the molecular compositions in various parts of the horns and their correlation with biomechanical properties. We also developed a surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to trace their degradation products. We found that various parts of the horns have similar overall molecular compositions, but have differences in the bands of C–C–S–S–C–C conformation, α‐helix and β‐sheet conformation, especially in the bands of 507–515 cm−1 which reflect the relative sulfur content and the structural conformation of the disulfide linkages. The Raman intensities at the region are highly correlated with the Young's modulus and tensile strength of the horns, indicating that the biomechanical properties of the horns are mainly determined by their disulfide bonds. It also suggests that Raman spectroscopy has the potential to perform non‐destructive detection on the mechanical strength of horns. The SERS measurements verified that the main constituents of the degradation products from both the buffalo and sheep horns were amino acids and polypeptides, suggesting that the horns are suitable candidates for biomaterial scaffolds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Funding Information
  • Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (30940019, 60377043)
  • Guang Dong Provincial Science and Technology Foundation

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