Journal
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES
Volume 195, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2020.111258
Keywords
Keratin intermediate filaments (KIFs); Keratin-associated proteins (KAPs); Chitosan; Hydrogel; Mechanical strength
Funding
- Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan [MOST 106-2221-E-027-144, 108-2221-E-027-075]
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Keratin/chitosan composite is a readily available source for a hybrid hydrogel in tissue engineering. While human hair keratins could provide biological functions, chitosan could further enhance the mechanical strength of the hybrid hydrogels. However, hair keratin is a group of natural proteins, and the uncontrolled hair protein contents in a hydrogel may lead to the batch-to-batch inconsistent gel properties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of hair protein composition, including the keratin-associated proteins (KAPs, 6 -30 kDa) and keratin intermediate filaments (KIFs, 45 - 60 kDa) on gel characteristics of the keratin/chitosan hydrogel. The various compressive and tensile modulus of the gel was observed based on the selection of different protein fractions as the significant gel components. These results thus suggest a straightforward method of preparing hair keratin/chitosan hydrogel with much more controllable gel properties by merely modulating the KAPs/KIFs ratios in a gel.
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