Preparation and Characteristics of Wool Keratin Aqueous Solution and Sponge

Wool keratin has broad application prospects in biomedical materials, tissue engineering, and other fields. To obtain porous wool keratin membrane with good performance, and lay the foundation for its application in biological fields in the future, wool keratin aqueous solution and sponge were prepared and their characters were discussed. Wool fiber was dissolved with a mixture of urea, β-mercapitoethanol, sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS) and water, and stable keratin aqueous solution was prepared through filtration and dialysis. Dissolution rate under different conditions was discussed. The results show that dissolution rate increases with the increase of dissolving temperature, reduction β-mercaptoethanol and assistant agent urea concentration and the addition of SDS. SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS PAGE) shows the major molecular weight of the aqueous keratin solution is between 44300 u and 66400 u. Amino acid analysis shows the cysteine acid content of the keratin solution decreases obviously. Wool keratin sponge was made from the keratin solution with freeze drying method and its structure and characters were studied with scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). The results indicate that keratin sponge has evident pores structure, and the conformation of the sponge is β-sheet.

Wool keratin has broad application prospects in biomedical materials, tissue engineering, and other fields. To obtain porous wool keratin membrane with good performance, and lay the foundation for its application in biological fields in the future, wool keratin aqueous solution and sponge were prepared and their characters were discussed. Wool fiber was dissolved with a mixture of urea, β-mercapitoethanol, sodium dodeeyl sulfate （ SDS ） and water, and stable keratin aqueous solution was prepared through filtration and dialysis. Dissolution rate under different conditions was discussed. The results show that dissolution rate increases with the increase of dissolving temperature, reduction β-mercaptoethanol and assistant agent urea concentration and the addition of SDS. SDS polyaerylamide gel electrophoresis （ SDS PAGE） shows the major molecular weight of the aqueous keratin solution is between 44 300 u and 66 400 u. Amino acid analysis shows the cysteine acid content of the keratin solution decreases obviously. Wool keratin sponge was made from the keratin solution with freeze drying method and its structure and characters were studied with scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer （FTIR）. The results indicate that keratin sponge has evident pores structure, and the conformation of the sponge is β-sheet.