Mechanical and Biological Properties of Keratose Biomaterials

The document discusses keratose, an oxidized form of human hair keratin proteins, as a promising biomaterial for tissue engineering in nerve, spinal cord, skin, and bone regeneration. Keratose, which is obtained from human hair through chemical treatment, consists of 99% proteins and has a similar amino acid content to human hair cortex. It forms an elastic solid-like hydrogel when rehydrated and can be made into highly-porous scaffolds with cellular foam-like compression behavior. These scaffolds are non-toxic, as shown by cytotoxicity assays with an EC50 value of 8-10 mg/mL for various cell lines. In vivo studies in mice demonstrated that keratose is largely resorbed (92%) within 8 weeks and integrates well with host tissue, showing better tissue response benchmarks than the control PLGA 90:10 mesh. Keratose also remodeled with the natural collagen extracellular matrix, suggesting its utility as a temporary matrix for regenerative medicine.