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Electro-spinning of pure collagen nano-fibres – Just an expensive way to make gelatin?

2008; Elsevier BV; Volume: 29; Issue: 15 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.biomaterials.2008.02.009

1878-5905

Dimitrios I. Zeugolis, Shih Tak Khew, Elijah S.Y. Yew, Andrew K. Ekaputra, Yen Wah Tong, Lin‐Yue Lanry Yung, Dietmar W. Hutmacher, Colin J. R. Sheppard, Michael Raghunath,

Electrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications

Scaffolds manufactured from biological materials promise better clinical functionality, providing that characteristic features are preserved.Collagen, a prominent biopolymer, is used extensively for tissue engineering applications, because its signature biological and physico-chemical properties are retained in in vitro preparations.We show here for the first time that the very properties that have established collagen as the leading natural biomaterial are lost when it is electro-spun into nanofibres out of fluoroalcohols such as 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol or 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol.We further identify the use of fluoroalcohols as the major culprit in the process.The resultant nanoscaffolds lack the unique ultra-structural axially periodicity that confirms quarter-staggered supramolecular assemblies and the capacity to generate second harmonics signals, representing the typical crystalline triple-helical structure.They were also characterised by low denaturation temperatures, similar to those obtained from gelatin preparations (p>0.05).Likewise, circular dichroism spectra revealed extensive denaturation of the electro-spun collagen.Using pepsin digestion in combination with quantitative SDS-PAGE, we corroborate great losses of up to 99% of triple-helical collagen.In conclusion, electro-spinning of collagen out of fluoroalcohols effectively denatures this biopolymer, and thus appears to defeat its purpose, namely to create biomimetic scaffolds emulating the collagen structure and function of the extracellular matrix.