KeraNetics LLC, Winston Salem, NC, USA.
Biomaterials. 2013 Apr;34(11):2632-40. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2012.12.022. Epub 2013 Jan 20.
Driven by new discoveries in stem-cell biology and regenerative medicine, there is broad interest in biomaterials that go beyond basic interactions with cells and tissues to actively direct and sustain cellular behavior. Keratin biomaterials have the potential to achieve these goals but have been inadequately described in terms of composition, structure, and cell-instructive characteristics. In this manuscript we describe and characterize a keratin-based biomaterial, demonstrate self-assembly of cross-linked hydrogels, investigate a cell-specific interaction that is dependent on the hydrogel structure and mediated by specific biomaterial-receptor interactions, and show one potential medical application that relies on receptor binding - the ability to achieve hemostasis in a lethal liver injury model. Keratin biomaterials represent a significant advance in biotechnology as they combine the compatibility of natural materials with the chemical flexibility of synthetic materials. These characteristics allow for a system that can be formulated into several varieties of cell-instructive biomaterials with potential uses in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, drug and cell delivery, and trauma.
受干细胞生物学和再生医学新发现的推动，人们对生物材料产生了广泛的兴趣，这些材料不仅仅与细胞和组织进行基本的相互作用，而是主动指导和维持细胞的行为。角蛋白生物材料具有实现这些目标的潜力，但就其组成、结构和细胞指导特性而言，描述得还不够充分。在本文中，我们描述并表征了一种基于角蛋白的生物材料，展示了交联水凝胶的自组装，研究了一种依赖于水凝胶结构并由特定生物材料受体相互作用介导的细胞特异性相互作用，并展示了一个潜在的医学应用，该应用依赖于受体结合——即在致命性肝损伤模型中实现止血的能力。角蛋白生物材料是生物技术的重大进步，因为它们将天然材料的相容性与合成材料的化学灵活性结合在一起。这些特性使得该系统可以被配制成几种具有组织工程、再生医学、药物和细胞递送以及创伤治疗潜在用途的细胞指导性生物材料。
