Yin, J, Wood, DJ orcid.org/0000-0001-8269-9123, Russell, SJ orcid.org/0000-0003-0339-9611 et al. (1 more author) (2021) Hierarchically Assembled Type I Collagen Fibres as Biomimetic Building Blocks of Biomedical Membranes. Membranes, 11 (8). 620. ISSN 2077-0375
Abstract
Wet spinning is an established fibre manufacturing route to realise collagen fibres with preserved triple helix architecture and cell acceptability for applications in biomedical membranes. However, resulting fibres still need to be chemically modified post-spinning to ensure material integrity in physiological media, with inherent risks of alteration of fibre morphology and with limited opportunities to induce fibrillogenesis following collagen fixation in the crosslinked state. To overcome this challenge, we hypothesised that a photoactive type I collagen precursor bearing either single or multiple monomers could be employed to accomplish hierarchically assembled fibres with improved processability, macroscopic properties and nanoscale organisation via sequential wet spinning and UV-curing. In-house-extracted type I rat tail collagen functionalised with both 4-vinylbenzyl chloride (4VBC) and methacrylate residues generated a full hydrogel network following solubilisation in a photoactive aqueous solution and UV exposure, whereby ~85 wt.% of material was retained following 75-day hydrolytic incubation. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction confirmed the presence of typical collagen patterns, whilst an averaged compression modulus and swelling ratio of more than 290 kPa and 1500 wt.% was recorded in the UV-cured hydrogel networks. Photoactive type I collagen precursors were subsequently wet spun into fibres, displaying the typical dichroic features of collagen and regular fibre morphology. Varying tensile modulus (E = 5 ± 1 − 11 ± 4 MPa) and swelling ratio (SR = 1880 ± 200 − 3350 ± 500 wt.%) were measured following post-spinning UV curing and equilibration with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Most importantly, 72-h incubation of the wet spun fibres in PBS successfully induced renaturation of collagen-like fibrils, which were fixed following UV-induced network formation. The whole process proved to be well tolerated by cells, as indicated by a spread-like cell morphology following a 48-h culture of L929 mouse fibroblasts on the extracts of UV-cured fibres.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | type I collagen; photoactive; wet spinning; sequential functionalization |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Design (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Dentistry (Leeds) > Oral Biology (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Not Known EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Aug 2021 09:02 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:44 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/membranes11080620 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:176890 |