Liquid-Exfoliated Mesostructured Collagen from the Bovine Achilles Tendon as Building Blocks of Collagen Membranes

Abstract

Mesoscaled assemblies are organized in native collagen tissues to achieve remarkable and diverse performance and functions. In this work, a facile, low-cost, and controllable liquid exfoliation method was applied to directly extract these collagen mesostructures from bovine Achilles tendons using a sodium hydroxide (NaOH)/urea aqueous system with freeze−thaw cycles and sonication. A series of collagen fibrils with diameters of 26−230 nm were harvested using this process, and in situ observations under polarizing microscopy (POM) and using molecular dynamics simulations revealed the influence of the NaOH/urea system on the tendon collagen. FTIR and XRD results confirmed that these collagen fibrils preserved typical structural characteristics of type I collagen. These isolated collagen fibrils were then utilized as building blocks to fabricate free-standing collagen membranes, which exhibited good stability in solvents and outstanding mechanical properties and transparency, with potential for utility in optical and electronic sensors. Moreover, in vitro and vivo evaluations demonstrated that these new resulting collagen membranes had good cytocompatibility, biocompatibility, and degradability for potential applications in biomedicine. This work provides a new approach for collagen processing by liquid exfoliation with utility for the formation of robust collagen materials that consist of native collagen mesostructures as building blocks.

Black wattle tannin‐immobilized mesostructured collagen as a promising adsorbent for cationic organic dyes (methylene blue) removal in batch and continuous fixed‐bed systems

“…It was noticed that at acidic conditions, the excess H + ions neutralizing the negative charge present in the adsorbent surface, therefore resulting in desorption from adsorptive sites. Besides, in acidic and basic solutions, the charged fibrils was not conducive to the formation of a dynamic fiber network to capture dye molecules, 47 resulting in the decrease of removal efficiency at pH 10. In Figure 5b, the removal efficiency and adsorption capacity of MB gradually increased as the increase of TC dosage and slight increase after 1:100 (g/ml).…”

“…Mesostructured collagen was prepared according to our previous work 47 . In particular, noncollagen components were removed from the bovine Achilles tendon, and the tendons were cut into 1 cm 3 sections.…”

“…Proper pore structure, high specific surface area and intensive adsorption sites are critical to improve adsorption performance for adsorption materials 45,46 . Our previous work reported that mesostructured collagen with diameter of 160 ± 70 nm were exfoliated in NaOH/urea solution after 3 cycles of freeze–thaw treatments 47 . Therefore, smaller size fibers can be obtained by our previous exfoliated work, thereby increasing the specific surface area in order to change the structure of tannin‐immobilized mesostructured collagen (TC), which is more conducive to the construction of adsorbent materials.…”

“…45,46 Our previous work reported that mesostructured collagen with diameter of 160 ± 70 nm were exfoliated in NaOH/urea solution after 3 cycles of freezethaw treatments. 47 Therefore, smaller size fibers can be obtained by our previous exfoliated work, thereby increasing the specific surface area in order to change the structure of tannin-immobilized mesostructured collagen (TC), which is more conducive to the construction of adsorbent materials. In this work, on the basis of our previous exfoliated work, we attempted to use exfoliated micro-or nano-scale (mesostructured) collagen fibers as insoluble carriers for the immobilization of black wattle tannins (Figure 1a).…”

A Rapid and Convenient Approach to Construct Porous Collagen Membranes via Bioskiving and Sonication-Feasible for Mineralization to Induce Bone Regeneration

“…Historically, the GBR membrane has aided in stabilizing the blood coagulum and secluding the rapidly proliferating tissue, including the gingival epithelium and connective tissue, thereby creating a suitable environment for osteogenesis ( Elgali et al, 2017 ). Collagen, which has proven biocompatibility and excellent tissue integration ( Pei et al, 2021 ), has received much attention regarding its use in GBR membrane construction ( Dacache Neto et al, 2020 ; Kapogianni et al, 2021 ). Currently, the GBR membrane is designed with a dual-layered structure, including the layer facing the mucosa and the layer facing the bone defect ( Li P. et al, 2021 ).…”