Developing a novel suturing material using human hair proteins

• Main Author: Gan, Le Min
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Biomaterials
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44779
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A human hair protein, keratin hybrid fiber was produced by the process of polyelectrolyte complexation using chitosan and alginate as the base components. Despite similarity of hybrid fibers experimented (i.e. keratin-chitosan-gellan fiber types); none have tested the combination of keratin-chitosan-alginate system. The resulting keratin-chitosan-alginate hybrid fibers were fabricated by the simple integration of 10-30wt% keratin, with 0.5wt% alginate aqueous solution and 0.5wt% chitosan in 0.15M of acetic acid solution at room temperature, proceeding with the drawing of hybrid fiber formed at the solution interface (i.e. termed as interfacial synthesis). The drawing rate used was 10mm/s. This hybrid fiber can be identified as a new form of keratin-based material, owing to its huge amount of pure keratins incorporated. In order to determine the optimal combination of these conditions, the hybrid fibers were subjected to characterisation techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Tensile Tests. Mechanical strength of hybrid fibers varies from 3.53 to 15.2 MPa, depending on the concentration of keratins incorporated. In this research, all materials used are made of natural polymers. Therefore, this novel hybrid fiber has good potential for use in the biomedical industry for the reasons that human hair protein (Keratin), is of great abundance, easily available, biocompatible and biodegradable.