Self-Assembly and Crystal Morphology of a Polysaccharide from the Loach

In this paper, we investigated the self-assembly and crystalline feature of Misgurnusanguilliacaudatus polysaccharide (MAP) from the loach due to the theoretical and practicalimportance of MAP in biomedical engineering, biomaterials and environmental sciences etc. Theself-assembly and crystal morphology of MAP were observed under an atomic force microscope(AFM) and an optical microscope. The results indicted that the MAP crystalline processes two kindsof form unit, such as spindle-shaped rod and regular hexahedron. The basic form units can selfassembleto form particle-shaped or fiber-like assemblies at decades of micrometers. Furthermore,many regular holes at size of 100-200 nanometer scale distribute evenly on the micro-structuralsurface of leave-like assemblies. All of these results are valuable for the structure/function relationshipstudy of MAP and useful for application in biomedical materials.