Blended Polyurethane and Tropoelastin as a Novel Class of Biologically Interactive Elastomer

Abstract

Polyurethanes are versatile elastomers but suffer from biological limitations such as poor control over cell attachment and the associated disadvantages of increased fibrosis. We address this problem by presenting a novel strategy that retains elasticity while modulating biological performance. We describe a new biomaterial that comprises a blend of synthetic and natural elastomers: the biostable polyurethane Elast-Eon and the recombinant human tropoelastin protein. We demonstrate that the hybrid constructs yield a class of coblended elastomers with unique physical properties. Hybrid constructs displayed higher elasticity and linear stress-strain responses over more than threefold strain. The hybrid materials showed increased overall porosity and swelling in comparison to polyurethane alone, facilitating enhanced cellular interactions. In vitro, human dermal fibroblasts showed enhanced proliferation, while in vivo, following subcutaneous implantation in mice, hybrid scaffolds displayed a reduced fibrotic response and tunable degradation rate. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a blend of synthetic and natural elastomers and is a promising approach for generating tailored bioactive scaffolds for tissue repair.

A novel technique to produce tubular scaffolds based on collagen and elastin

“…Fibrous scaffolds have been widely studied for TE, because of the high porosity and surface area, 12 and for being able to mimic the ECM structure. Electrospinning (ES) is one of the most common techniques studied for polymer fiber production and has also been used to produce fibrous scaffolds based on protein blends 16,17 . In contrast, it has been proved that ES can denature proteins like Col, because of the organic solvents combined with the high voltages required 18,19 .…”

“…Electrospinning (ES) is one of the most common techniques studied for polymer fiber production and has also been used to produce fibrous scaffolds based on protein blends. 16,17 In contrast, it has been proved that ES can denature proteins like Col, because of the organic solvents combined with the high voltages required. 18,19 Therefore, rotary jet spinning (RJS) emerged as a technique capable of easily producing fibers with micro or nanometric diameters on a large-scale volume.…”

Tissue engineering meets immunoengineering: Prospective on personalized in situ tissue engineering strategies

“…Synthetic-natural hybrid scaffolds can overcome many of these limitations by offering a greater level of control, while benefiting from the presence of natural components. The relevance of this is reflected by several studies reporting superior regenerative performance of synthetic-natural hybrid scaffolds in comparison with their purely synthetic counterparts [42,7,43].…”

Collagen and Elastin Biomaterials for the Fabrication of Engineered Living Tissues

“…The recombinant product was confirmed by evaluating cross-reactivity with antibodies directed at mixtures of derived human tropoelastin. Weiss has significantly improved the yield of rhTE and has since used rhTE as a model to study the behavior of human elastin and fabricated tropoelastin-based biomaterials for various tissue-engineering applications. − Despite the capacity for large-scale production of rhTE, the major drawback remains the requirement for extensive purification of proteins derived from bacterial systems.…”