Enzymatic Extraction of Bioactive and Self‐Assembling Wool Keratin for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Front Cover: A biological extraction strategy is proposed for the preparation of bioactive keratins from wool wastes. The keratin products show excellent ability to promote cell growth and migration, and also conferred with significant antioxidant ability. They can self‐assemble into injectable hydrogels, showing potentials for promoting wound healing. This is reported by Chang Su, Jin‐Song Gong, Jin‐Peng Ye, Ji‐Meng He, Rui‐Yi Li, Min Jiang, Yan Geng, Yan Zhang, Jing‐Hua Chen, Zheng‐Hong Xu, Jin‐Song Shi in article 2000073.

Upcycling of Keratin Wastes in Sustainable Textile Fiber Applications

“…This result is consistent with previously reported values for keratin extracted from wool using moderate methods, such as enzymatic extraction with keratinase or urea/cysteine extraction. 9,29 The amount of wool keratin regenerated in water is lower than that of cashmere keratin, and SDS-PAGE analysis reveals that the intensity of the 37K band in wool is lower than that of cashmere. This indicates that less high molar mass wool keratin coagulates in the water bath.…”

Industrial sustainability of microbial keratinases: production and potential applications

“…Keratinases can also be applied for extraction of keratin to be used in the production of biomaterials for biomedical applications. For instance, enzymatic extracted keratin was evaluated for its potential in the production of a hydrogel for wound healing application (Su et al 2020b). Another proposal suggests the use of keratinases for prion decontamination, which could contribute to avoid incineration of medical equipment and samples (Mitsuiki et al 2006;Okoroma et al 2013).…”

The tale of a versatile enzyme: Molecular insights into keratinase for its industrial dissemination

“…Thus, keratin-derived biomaterials have widespread applications in tissue engineering, drug delivery, and surgical dressing (Patrucco et al, 2016). Studies on extracting keratins using chemical reagents and physical treatments have been widely published (Shavandi et al, 2017), but there are few reports on keratin extraction by keratinases (Su et al, 2020;Ye et al, 2020). This is because of the difficulties in maintaining the intact structure and protein skeleton of desired end-products through the degradation process.…”