Tummino Maria Laura, Cruz-Maya Iriczalli, Varesano Alessio, Vineis Claudia, Guarino Vincenzo
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Corso Giuseppe Pella 16, 13900 Biella, Italy.
Institute for Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Mostra d'Oltremare, Pad. 20, V. le J.F. Kennedy 54, 80125 Napoli, Italy.
Materials (Basel). 2024 May 18;17(10):2435. doi: 10.3390/ma17102435.
The frontiers of antibacterial materials in the biomedical field are constantly evolving since infectious diseases are a continuous threat to human health. In this work, waste-wool-derived keratin electrospun nanofibers were blended with copper by an optimized impregnation procedure to fabricate antibacterial membranes with intrinsic biological activity, excellent degradability and good cytocompatibility. The keratin/copper complex electrospun nanofibers were multi-analytically characterized and the main differences in their physical-chemical features were related to the crosslinking effect caused by Cu. Indeed, copper ions modified the thermal profiles, improving the thermal stability (evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetry), and changed the infrared vibrational features (determined by infrared spectroscopy) and the chemical composition (studied by an X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy probe and optical emission spectrometry). The copper impregnation process also affected the morphology, leading to partial nanofiber swelling, as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy analyses. Then, the membranes were successfully tested as antibacterial materials against gram-negative bacteria, . Regarding cytocompatibility, in vitro assays performed with L929 cells showed good levels of cell adhesion and proliferation (XTT assay), and no significant cytotoxic effect, in comparison to bare keratin nanofibers. Given these results, the material described in this work can be suitable for use as antibiotic-free fibers for skin wound dressing or membranes for guided tissue regeneration.
由于传染病持续威胁人类健康，生物医学领域抗菌材料的前沿不断发展。在这项工作中，通过优化的浸渍程序将废羊毛衍生的角蛋白电纺纳米纤维与铜混合，以制备具有内在生物活性、优异降解性和良好细胞相容性的抗菌膜。对角蛋白/铜复合电纺纳米纤维进行了多分析表征，其物理化学特征的主要差异与铜引起的交联效应有关。事实上，铜离子改变了热曲线，提高了热稳定性（通过差示扫描量热法和热重分析法评估），改变了红外振动特征（通过红外光谱法测定）和化学成分（通过X射线能量色散光谱探头和光发射光谱法研究）。铜浸渍过程也影响了形态，导致纳米纤维部分肿胀，扫描电子显微镜分析证明了这一点。然后，这些膜作为抗革兰氏阴性菌的抗菌材料成功进行了测试。关于细胞相容性，与裸露的角蛋白纳米纤维相比，用L929细胞进行的体外试验显示出良好的细胞粘附和增殖水平（XTT试验），且无明显细胞毒性作用。鉴于这些结果，这项工作中描述的材料可适合用作皮肤伤口敷料的无抗生素纤维或引导组织再生的膜。
