Keratin/PEO/hydroxyapatite Nanofiber Membrane with Improved Mechanical Property for Potential Burn Dressing Application

Keratin, as a promising substitute for tissue engineering due to its excellent biocompatibility and bioactivity, is used to combine one or more other polymers together. However, compound nanofibers with high keratin content (normally >90 wt.%) may result in the poor elongation of nanofiber membranes such as wound dressing. In this work, different ratios of hydroxyapatites (HA) modified by sodium hexametaphosphate were blended with keratin/polyethylene oxide (PEO) spinning solution to produce reinforced keratin blend nanofiber nonwoven membranes as a potential candidate wound dressing. The tensile strength of keratin blend nanofiber membrane with 15 % modified HA addition was two times higher than that without HA. The morphologies and chemical structure of keratin/PEO/HA nanofiber membranes were investigated using SEM, FTIR, and TG. The biocompatibility and the burn repairing performance of keratin/PEO/HA nanofiber mat were also investigated by cell culture and animal burn model. The results showed that the Keratin/PEO/HA nanofiber membrane was beneficial to enhance the proliferation of L929 cell, exhibiting an advantages in reducing inflammatory response in the infective stage and enhancing skin repairing process in the following recover stages. Our data suggested that keratin/PEO/HA nanofiber membrane could serve as a promising burn dressing for treatment of the skin burn.