Hemocompatible Chitin-Chitosan Composite Fibers

Abstract

Composite chitosan fibers filled with chitin nanofibrils (CNF) were obtained by the wet spinning method. The paper discusses the mechanical properties of such type fibers and their hemocompatibility, as well as the possibility of optimizing these properties by adding chitin nanofibrils. It was shown that low CNF concentration (about 0.5%) leads to an increase in fiber tensile strength due to the additional orientation of chitosan macromolecules. At the same time, with an increase in the content of CNF, the stability of the mechanical properties of composite fibers in a humid medium increases. All chitosan fibers, except 0.5% CNF, showed good hemocompatibility, even on prolonged contact with human blood. The addition of chitin nanofibers leads to decrease in hemoglobin molecules sorption due to the decline in optical density at wavelengths of 414 nm and 540 nm. Nevertheless, the hemolysis of fibers was comparable or even lesser that carbon hemosorbent, which is actively used in clinical practice.

Trends in Surgical and Beauty Masks for a Cleaner Environment

“…As it appears from the reported immuno-histochemical study, the CD34-positive cells appear to be more expressed in skin treated by CN and CN-Lutein compared with the non-treated control (Figure 7). On the other hand, the interesting stimulus activity on CD-34-positive radicular-follicular (i.e., stem) cells reported from our group some years ago [78] has been confirmed recently from other research groups [79][80][81][82]. Thus, it has shown an increasing activity of anagen hair follicles of mice treated topically by chitosan and CN with a contemporary decrease in the number of catagen follicles, compared with the control group [82].…”

“…According to the Yudin group research studies [76], it has been supposed that CN "contributes to the orientation of the chitosan macromolecule that leads to an increased strength and elastic Young module of the composite fibers" as reported on Figure 8, contributing also to the degradability and sustainability of the nanocomposite processing [67,68,76,77]. The introduction of CN into the chitosan matrix could contribute to form a more bioresorbable composite, increasing its biocompatibility, bioactivity, hemocompatibility and effectiveness at the skin level [76,[79][80][81].…”

Application of the Composite Fibers Based on Chitosan and Chitin Nanofibrils in Cosmetology

“…These dependencies are nonmonotonic. In our previous works [ 29 , 33 ] it was shown that the maximum values of fiber strength and Young’s modulus are observed at a chitin concentration of about 0.3–0.5 wt.%. Indeed, the optimal filler content of 0.1–0.5 wt.…”

“…The mixture was stirred for 30 min until swelling and partial dissolution of chitosan occurred; then concentrated acetic acid was introduced at continuous stirring, and its concentration was brought up to 2%. The chitosan concentration in solutions was equal to 4.0 wt.%, and the content of chitin nanofibrils was 0.5 wt.% with respect to chitosan [ 29 ]. This chitosan concentration (4.0 wt.%) provides the necessary viscosity of the spinning solution and is optimal for the coagulation spinning of fibers [ 30 ].…”

Influence of the Introduced Chitin Nanofibrils on Biomedical Properties of Chitosan-Based Materials

“…The preliminary in vitro experiments involving chitosan-based composite materials were conducted in the previous works. It was shown [23] that upon the contact between blood plasma and composite chitosan-based ChNF-containing fibers, optical density of blood plasma decreases. This result is associated with sorption of hemoglobin by the fibers.…”