Department of Chemistry and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060.
Authors contributed equally to this work.
Biomed Mater. 2020 Sep 24;15(6):065006. doi: 10.1088/1748-605X/ab98e8.
Natural biopolymers have found success in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Their intrinsic biocompatibility and biological activity make them well suited for biomaterials development. Specifically, keratin-based biomaterials have demonstrated utility in regenerative medicine applications including bone regeneration, wound healing, and nerve regeneration. However, studies of structure-function relationships in keratin biomaterials have been hindered by the lack of homogeneous preparations of materials extracted and isolated from natural sources such as wool and hair fibers. Here we present a side-by-side comparison of natural and recombinant human hair keratin proteins K31 and K81. When combined, the recombinant proteins (i.e. rhK31 and rhK81) assemble into characteristic intermediate filament-like fibers. Coatings made from natural and recombinant dimers were compared side-by-side and investigated for coating characteristics and cell adhesion. In comparison to control substrates, the recombinant keratin materials show a higher propensity for inducing involucrin and hence, maturation in terms of potential skin cell differentiation.
天然生物聚合物在组织工程和再生医学应用中取得了成功。它们固有的生物相容性和生物活性使它们非常适合生物材料的开发。具体来说，角蛋白基生物材料在再生医学应用中表现出了实用性，包括骨再生、伤口愈合和神经再生。然而，由于缺乏从羊毛和头发纤维等天然来源提取和分离的材料的均质制剂，角蛋白生物材料的结构-功能关系研究受到了阻碍。在这里，我们对天然和重组人发角蛋白蛋白 K31 和 K81 进行了并列比较。当两种重组蛋白（即 rhK31 和 rhK81）组合时，它们会组装成具有特征的中间纤维样纤维。天然和重组二聚体的涂层被并列比较，并对涂层特性和细胞黏附进行了研究。与对照底物相比，重组角蛋白材料在诱导外皮蛋白方面表现出更高的倾向，因此在皮肤细胞分化的潜力方面更为成熟。
