Water-Stable Three-Dimensional Ultrafine Fibrous Scaffolds from Keratin for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Intrinsically water-stable scaffolds composed of ultrafine keratin fibers oriented randomly and evenly in three dimensions were electrospun for cartilage tissue engineering. Keratin has been recognized as a biomaterial that could substantially support the growth and development of multiple cell lines. Besides, three-dimensional (3D) ultrafine fibrous structures were preferred in tissue engineering due to their structural similarity to native extracellular matrices in soft tissues. Recently, we have developed a nontraditional approach to developing 3D fibrous scaffolds from alcohol-soluble corn protein, zein, and verified their structural advantages in tissue engineering. However, keratin with highly cross-linked molecular structures could not be readily dissolved in common solvents for fiber spinning, which required the remarkable drawability of solution. So far, 3D fibrous scaffolds from pure keratin for biomedical applications have not been reported. In this research, the highly cross-linked keratin from chicken feathers was de-cross-linked and disentangled into linear and aligned molecules with preserved molecular weights, forming highly stretchable spinning dope. The solution was readily electrospun into scaffolds with ultrafine keratin fibers oriented randomly in three dimensions. Due to the highly cross-linked molecular structures, keratin scaffolds showed intrinsic water stability. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells could penetrate much deeper, proliferate, and chondrogenically differentiate remarkably better on the 3D keratin scaffolds than on 2D PLA fibrous scaffolds, 3D soy protein fibrous scaffolds, or 3D commercial nonfibrous scaffolds. In summary, the electrospun 3D ultrafine fibrous scaffolds from keratin could be promising candidates for cartilage tissue engineering.

Sustainable Management of Keratin Waste Biomass: Applications and Future Perspectives

“…(Xu et al, 2014a) Micro and Nanoparticles (Sun et al, 2009) Nanoparticle for medical application Graphene oxide and its derivative in biomaterials (Amieva et al, 2014) As a diet supplement for feeding ruminants (Coward-Kelly et al, 2006) (Dalev, 1994) (Dalev et al, 1996) (Dalev et al, 1997) As a microporous material used as electrode material (Zhan and Wool, 2011) Thermoplastic films for packaging of food ) (Jin et al, 2011 Waste managment using microorganisms in degradation (Vasileva-Tonkova et al, 2009) (Syed et al, 2009) (Grazziotin et al, 2006) Leather processing (Sastry et al, 1986) (Sehgal et al, 1987) (Karthikeyan et al, 2007) Hand spun yan (Reddy and Yang, 2007) Textile yarns (Reddy et al, 2014a) ) ) Keratinases in detergents formulation (Balakumar et al, 2013) (Manivasagan et al, 2014) (Rai et al, 2009) Flame retardant (Wang et al, 2014) Bio-composites or composite fabrication (Flores-Hernández et al, 2014) (Spiridon et al, 2012) (Huda and Yang, 2008) (Gurav and Jadhav, 2013) (Hadas and Kautsky, 1994) (Gousterova et al, 2012) The enzyme keratinases can be used as a fertilizer for de-hairing in leather industry, detergent, feed and other biomedical products. Keratinase can be isolated and purified from poultry feathers (Balakumar et al 2013).…”

Non-food industrial applications of poultry feathers

“…Conventionally, feathers have been hydrolyzed using alkali and used to develop films and other products. However, hydrolyzing feathers decreases the molecular weight considerably resulting in products with poor mechanical properties and stability in aqueous conditions (Xu et al, 2014a). In a novel approach to prevent hydrolysis and preserve the properties of keratin, feather keratin was extracted using a three-step process that involved deoxidation with 2-mercaptoethanol as the first step (Yin et al, 2013a).…”

“…Feather or keratin extracted from feathers have been made into fibers, films, hydrogels, nano Table 1 Properties of feathers for potential use as electrodes (Wang et al, 2013). BET (Xu et al, 2014a). In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature available on using feather or feather keratin for non-food industrial applications.…”

Nanoparticles Derived from Plant Proteins for cOntrolled Release and Targeted Delivery of Therapeutics

“…The crosslinked structures could be manipulated to ensure satisfactory loading and unloading of therapeutics. Mild dissolution methods could be used to preserve molecular structures [17,18], and facilitate loading of therapeutics via chemical or physical interaction. With selfcrosslinking capability that may lead to longterm water stability of ultrafine structures [19,20], external crosslinking to ensure stabil ity of nanoparticles could be avoided.…”