Fibrin is a protein-based hydrogel formed during blood coagulation. It can also be produced in vitro from human blood plasma, and it is capable of resisting high deformations. However, after each deformation process, it loses high amounts of water, which subsequently makes it mechanically unstable and, finally, difficult to manipulate. The objective of this work was to overcome the in vitro fibrin mechanical instability. The strategy consists of adding silica or chitosan-silica materials and comparing how the different materials electrokinetic-surface properties affect the achieved improvement. The siliceous materials electrostatic and steric stabilization mechanisms, together with plasma protein adsorption on their surfaces, were corroborated by DLS and ζ-potential measurements before fibrin gelling. These properties avoid phase separation, favoring homogeneous incorporation of the solid into the forming fibrin network. Young’s modulus of modified fibrin hydrogels was evaluated by AFM to quantitatively measure stiffness. It increased 2.5 times with the addition of 4 mg/mL silica. A similar improvement was achieved with only 0.7 mg/mL chitosan-silica, which highlighted the contribution of hydrophilic chitosan chains to fibrinogen crosslinking. Moreover, these chains avoided the fibroblast growth inhibition onto modified fibrin hydrogels 3D culture observed with silica. In conclusion, 0.7 mg/mL chitosan-silica improved the mechanical stability of fibrin hydrogels with low risks of cytotoxicity. This easy-to-manipulate modified fibrin hydrogel makes it suitable as a wound dressing biomaterial.

Abstractβ‐galactosidase dosing and transport powders offer benefits for people with specific digestive deficiencies. They can be produced by immobilization in solid materials by sol–gel methods. The challenge is to maintain enzyme activity under processing conditions. The objective here is to design and optimize the calcium chloride and carboxymethylchitosan concentrations at 25°C and 7.3 pH for preparing active β‐galactosidase powders. This optimization was performed using a Response Surface Methodology with Central Composite Design, selecting lyoprotectants for preserving activity during the lyophilization. Glucose, galactose, maltose, sucrose, and β‐cyclodextrin lyoprotectants were assayed in different weight proportions. The optimal conditions to obtain a biocatalyst with maximum expressed activity were 473 mM CaCl2 and 402 ppm carboxymethylchitosan, obtaining a biocatalyst with 57.8% ± .7% recovered activity and 92.3% ± 2.1% immobilization yield. The galactose, maltose, and sucrose in a 1:5 ratio increased 1.2 times the expressed activity of this biocatalyst, protecting the active site during lyophilization due to favorable interactions with the enzyme as shown by docking analysis.Practical applicationsThis work shows the implementation of production methodologies of mixed enzyme‐mineral biocatalysts, based on the experimental, statistical, and docking studies of β‐galactosidase interactions with mono‐, di‐ and polysaccharides under ionic and thermal stress. The obtained powders could be candidates as dietary supplements of calcium, silicon minerals, and β‐galactosidase.