title: Biomimetic repeat protein derived from Xenopus tropicalis for fibrous scaffold fabrication.
abstract: Collagen, silk, and elastin are the fibrous proteins consist of representative amino acid repeats. Because these proteins exhibited distinguishing mechanical properties, they have been utilized in diverse applications, such as fiber-based sensors, filtration membranes, supporting materials, and tissue engineering scaffolds. Despite their infinite prevalence and potential, most studies have only focused on a few repeat proteins. In this work, the hypothetical protein with a repeat motif derived from the frog Xenopus tropicalis was obtained and characterized for its potential as a novel protein-based material. The codon-optimized recombinant frog repeat protein, referred to as 'xetro', was produced at a high rate in a bacterial system, and an acid extraction-based purified xetro protein was successfully fabricated into microfibers and nanofibers using wet spinning and electrospinning, respectively. Specifically, the wet-spun xetro microfibers demonstrated about 2- and 1.5-fold higher tensile strength compared with synthetic polymer polylactic acid and cross-linked collagen, respectively. In addition, the wet-spun xetro microfibers showed about sevenfold greater stiffness than collagen. Therefore, the mass production potential and greater mechanical properties of the xetro fiber may result in these fibers becoming a new promising fiber-based material for biomedical engineering.
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea.
authors: Yunkyeoung
authors: Y
authors: Kwon
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea.
authors: Yun Jung
authors: YJ
authors: Yang
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea.
authors: Dooyup
authors: D
authors: Jung
authors: Division of Bioengineering, Incheon National University, Incheon, 406-772, Korea.
authors: Byeong Hee
authors: BH
authors: Hwang
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea.
authors: Hyung Joon
authors: HJ
authors: Cha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D032701:Biomimetics; D003094:Collagen / Q000235:genetics; D004549:Elastin / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D047011:Silk / Q000235:genetics; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics*; D054159:Torsion, Mechanical; D014981:Xenopus
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D047011:Silk; D003094:Collagen; D004549:Elastin
keywords: fiber; mechanical property; protein-based material; recombinant protein; repeat motif