Development of a Mechanically Stable Human Hair Keratin Film for Cell Culture

The study successfully developed a mechanically stable film using extracted keratins from human hair. The keratin film was created through solution casting and air-drying at room temperature, without the need for crosslinkers or plasticizers. The film exhibited a Young’s modulus of 1.05 ± 0.09 GPa when dry and was highly stretchable at 179 ± 17% strain at break when wet. The keratin film also showed positive cellular responses when human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs) were cultured on it, indicating enhanced cell proliferation, viability, keratin 14 expression, and IL-1α secretion, compared to collagen I. This suggests that the keratin film could be a promising platform for cell culture applications.