Abstract

Objective: To determine whether the addition of kerateine (reduced keratin) in rat tail collagen type I hydrogels increases thermal stability and changes material properties and supports cell growth for use in cellular hyperthermia studies for tumor treatment.

Methods: Collagen type I extracted from rat tail tendon was combined with kerateine extracted from human hair fibers. Thermal, mechanical, and biocompatibility properties and cell behavior was assessed and compared to 100% collagen type I hydrogels to demonstrate their utility as a tissue model for 3D in vitro testing.

Results: A combination (i.e., containing both collagen ‘C/KNT’) hydrogel was more thermally stable than pure collagen hydrogels and resisted thermal degradation when incubated at a hyperthermic temperature of 47°C for heating durations up to 60 min with a higher melting temperature measured by DSC. An increase in the storage modulus was only observed with an increased collagen concentration rather than an increased KTN concentration; however, a change in ECM structure was observed with greater fiber alignment and width with an increase in KTN concentration. The C/KTN hydrogels, specifically 50/50 C/KTN hydrogels, also supported the growth and of fibroblasts and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells similar to those seeded in 100% collagen hydrogels.

Conclusion: This multi-protein C/KTN hydrogel shows promise for future studies involving thermal stress studies without compromising the 3D ECM environment or cell growth.

摘要

目的：确定在大鼠尾 I 型胶原蛋白水凝胶中添加角蛋白（减少角蛋白）是否会增加热稳定性并改变材料特性并支持细胞生长，以用于肿瘤治疗的细胞热疗研究。

方法：将从大鼠尾腱中提取的I型胶原蛋白与从人发纤维中提取的角蛋白结合。对热、机械和生物相容性以及细胞行为进行了评估，并与 100% I 型胶原蛋白水凝胶进行比较，以证明其作为 3D 体外测试组织模型的实用性。

结果：组合（即同时含有胶原蛋白“C/KNT”）水凝胶比纯胶原蛋白水凝胶具有更高的热稳定性，并且在 47°C 高温下孵育长达 60 分钟且熔点更高时可抵抗热降解。通过 DSC 测量温度。仅在胶原蛋白浓度增加时观察到储能模量增加，而 KTN 浓度增加时则观察不到储能模量的增加；然而，随着 KTN 浓度的增加，观察到 ECM 结构发生变化，纤维排列和宽度更大。C/KTN 水凝胶，特别是 50/50 C/KTN 水凝胶，也支持成纤维细胞和 MDA-MB-231 乳腺癌细胞的生长，与接种在 100% 胶原水凝胶中的细胞类似。

结论：这种多蛋白 C/KTN 水凝胶在不影响 3D ECM 环境或细胞生长的情况下，为涉及热应力研究的未来研究带来了前景。