The Biocompatibility of Wool Keratin

Keratin is the major structural fibrous protein providing outer covering such as hair, wool, feathers, etc. When being used as a kind of biomaterials, the biocompatibility of wool keratin is one of the most critical questions. By now, there has not been systemic study on the biocompatibiiity of keratin. Therefore, in this article we used the procedures of skin irritation, haemolysis and subcutaneous implantation according to ISO 10993 to study it. Moreover, the Fourier transform-infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was utilized to analyse the impurity and structure modification of wool keratin film. The part of the animal tests showed that the wool keratin films prepared by authors were biocompatible. But the residual of sodium dodecyi sulfate (SDS) affected the results of other tests. Consequently, the wool keratin membrane is one kind of favourable and promising biomaterial for biomedical and histological utilization. The residual SDS used as an agent should be eliminated from the keratin solution or membrane completely if for biological usage. In conclusion, wool keratin, as a kind of natural protein, prospectively could be applied in biomedical materials and scaffolds of tissue engineering.