Fabrication & characterization of human hair keratin template for wound healing application

Skin is an important organ in the human body. It serves several functions but mainly, protecting the body against the harsh external environment. As the understanding of cell biology and nanotechnology grow, people are looking into more interactive wound dressing products to induce wound healing. The ability of keratin-based material in promoting cell migration, adhesion and proliferation for speedy wound recovery is regarded as a potential biomaterial in interactive wound dressing. With increasing concern from the use of animal-derived materials in biomedical application, keratin based materials are preferred as it pose less risk and is readily available. On top of that, the adoption of electrospinning process in producing nanofibers mats which is cost savvy and has potential in industry-scaled production is highly attractive, on top of its ability in mimicking human native extracellular matrix which is produced during wound recovery. Therefore, electrospinning of keratin-based (keratose) material is pursued in this project. The electrospinning of keratose was possible upon the addition of small amount of poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO). Two different keratose solution formulations were electrospun and compared using various characterization techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). From the results, it was seen that electrospun fibers were formed at 7 wt% keratose-pH 8 buffer 3 v% BDDE 0.5 wt% PEO and showed the most potential in forming fibers while maintaining keratose properties. Hence, electrospinning of keratose solution provides useful insights to fabrication of keratose template and opens up the need on the study of kinetics of BDDE-crosslinked keratose in assisting the electrospinnability of keratose.Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Engineering