Barbalinardo Marianna, Falini Giuseppe, Montroni Devis
National Research Council (CNR), Institute for Nanostructured Materials (ISMN), Via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy.
Dipartimento di Chimica "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, Via F. Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 Jan 8;17(2):140. doi: 10.3390/polym17020140.
The development of greener substitutes for plastics is gaining massive importance in today's society. This also involves the medical field, where disposable materials are used to grant sterility. Here, a novel protocol using only a water-based solvent for the preparation of bio-based composite foams of actual β-chitin and collagen type I is presented. The influence of the ratio of this chitin polymorph to the collagen on the final material is then studied. The samples with 50:50 and 75:25 ratios produce promising results, such as remarkable water absorption (up to 7000 wt.%), exposed surface (up to 7 m·g), and total pore volume (over 80 vol.%). The materials are also tested using wet mechanical compression, exhibiting a Young's modulus and tenacity (both calculated between 2% and 25% of deformation) of up to 20 Pa and 9 kPa, respectively. Fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and osteoblasts are grown on these scaffolds. The viability of fibroblasts and keratinocytes is observed for 72 h, whereas the viability of osteoblasts is observed for up to 21 days. Under the two conditions mentioned, cell activity and adhesion work even better than under its counterpart condition of pure collagen. In conclusion, these materials are promising candidates for sustainable regenerative medicine scaffolds or, specifically, as biodegradable wound dressings.
在当今社会，开发更环保的塑料替代品正变得极为重要。这也涉及到医学领域，在该领域中使用一次性材料来确保无菌。在此，本文提出了一种仅使用水基溶剂制备实际β-几丁质和I型胶原蛋白生物基复合泡沫的新方案。然后研究了这种几丁质多晶型物与胶原蛋白的比例对最终材料的影响。比例为50:50和75:25的样品产生了令人满意的结果，如显著的吸水性（高达7000 wt.%）、暴露表面积（高达7 m·g）和总孔体积（超过80 vol.%）。还使用湿态机械压缩对材料进行了测试，其杨氏模量和韧性（均在2%至25%的变形之间计算）分别高达20 Pa和9 kPa。成纤维细胞、角质形成细胞和成骨细胞在这些支架上生长。观察成纤维细胞和角质形成细胞的活力达72小时，而成骨细胞的活力观察长达21天。在上述两种条件下，细胞活性和粘附甚至比在纯胶原蛋白的对应条件下表现更好。总之，这些材料有望成为可持续再生医学支架的候选材料，或者具体而言，可作为可生物降解的伤口敷料。
