Combining Catalyst‐Free Click Chemistry with Coaxial Electrospinning to Obtain Long‐Term, Water‐Stable, Bioactive Elastin‐Like Fibers for Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

Elastic fibers are a fundamental requirement for tissue-engineered equivalents of physiologically elastic native tissues. Here, a simple one-step electrospinning approach is developed, combining i) catalyst-free click chemistry, ii) coaxial electrospinning, and iii) recombinant elastin-like polymers as a relevant class of biomaterials. Water-stable elastin-like fibers are obtained without the use of cross-linking agents, catalysts, or harmful organic solvents. The fibers can be directly exposed to an aqueous environment at physiological temperature and their morphology maintained for at least 3 months. The bioactivity of the fibers is demonstrated with human vascular cells and the potential of the process for vascular tissue engineering is shown by fabricating small-diameter tubular fibrous scaffolds. Moreover, highly porous fluffy 3D constructs are obtained without the use of specially designed collectors or sacrificial materials, further supporting their applicability in the biomedical field. Ultimately, the strategy that is developed here may be applied to other click systems, contributing to expanding their potential in medical technology.

“In-situ” formation of elastin-like recombinamer hydrogels with tunable viscoelasticity through efficient one-pot process

“…Indeed, it can be found that the ELRs chemical modifications could be carried out through the functionalization of amino groups of the lysines, for example, with azido and cyclooctyne groups [ 20 , [34] , [35] , [36] ]. Thus, the ELRs chains (e.g., VKV24) can be chemically cross-linked by means of catalyst-free click chemistry (azide−alkyne [3 + 2] cycloaddition) [ 20 , 34 , 52 , 53 ]. This resulted in a hydrogels structure with a G′ of about 1.8 kPa–7.5 kPa as the concentration increases from 50 to about 150 mg/ml.…”

Trends in the design and use of elastin-like recombinamers as biomaterials

“…Recently, our group obtained oriented electrospun clickable ELR fibers, which have proven good cytocompatibility with fibroblasts and keratinocytes in vitro, suggesting their potential application in the formation of artificial skin or to promote skin regeneration [111]. Contemporarily, Fernández-Colino et al achieved similar fibers, which highlights their ease of attainment and their potential application in different tissue engineering fields [112].…”

Elastin‐Like Recombinamers: Deconstructing and Recapitulating the Functionality of Extracellular Matrix Proteins Using Recombinant Protein Polymers

“…[256] Electrospun ELR-based nanofiber matrices have been used to develop 3D scaffolds for several applications, which include dermal repair and as vascular grafts studies. [257][258][259] Similarly, salt leaching coupled with gas foaming has been used to produce macroporous scaffolds based on crosslinked ELR hydrogels. [260,261] This technique enables the pore size to be tuned on the microscale for optimal cell interaction as per requirement.…”