title: Fabrication of homobifunctional crosslinker stabilized collagen for biomedical application.
abstract: Collagen biopolymer has found widespread application in the field of tissue engineering owing to its excellent tissue compatibility and negligible immunogenicity. Mechanical strength and enzymatic degradation of the collagen necessitates the physical and chemical strength enhancement. One such attempt deals with the understanding of crosslinking behaviour of EGS (ethylene glycol-bis (succinic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester)) with collagen to improve the physico-chemical properties. The incorporation of a crosslinker during fibril formation enhanced the thermal and mechanical stability of collagen. EGS crosslinked collagen films exhibited higher denaturation temperature (T d) and the residue left after thermogravimetric analysis was about 16 ± 5.2%. Mechanical properties determined by uniaxial tensile tests showed a threefold increase in tensile strength and Young's modulus at higher concentration (100 μM). Water uptake capacity reduced up to a moderate extent upon crosslinking which is essential for the transport of nutrients to the cells. Cell viability was found to be 100% upon treatment with 100 μM EGS whereas only 30% viability could be observed with glutaraldehyde. Rheological studies of crosslinked collagen showed an increase in shear stress and shear viscosity at 37 °C. Crosslinking with EGS resulted in the formation of a uniform fibrillar network. Trinitrobenzene sulfonate (TNBS) assay confirmed that EGS crosslinked collagen by forming a covalent interaction with ε-amino acids of collagen. The homobifunctional crosslinker used in this study enhanced the effectiveness of collagen as a biomaterial for biomedical application.
authors.affiliation: Biomaterials Department CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar, Chennai 600 020, India.
authors.forename: Rachita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lakra
authors.forename: Manikantan Syamala
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kiran
authors.forename: Korrapati Purna
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Sai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000633:toxicity*; D003094:Collagen / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000633:toxicity*; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000633:toxicity*; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D033081:Shear Strength; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013718:Tensile Strength; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D003094:Collagen