Use of Whey Protein as a Natural Polymer for Tissue Adhesive: Preliminary Formulation and Evaluation In Vitro

作者：Wang, Guorong; Liu, Ning; Guo, Mingruo^*

来源：Polymers, 2018, 10(8): 843.

DOI：10.3390/polym10080843

• whey protein
• surgical glue
• crosslink
• bonding strength
• non-food

The use of sutures is still the most widely practiced solution for wound closure and tissue reconstruction; however, scarring is a common defect resulting from sutures on topical use. In some cases, the conventional sutures are unable to seal the sites where fluid and air leakage could occur. Tissue adhesives though have lower tensile strength than sutures, may make scarless surgery possible, or prevent fluid and air leakage. A product called BioGlue (R) (CryoLife Inc, Kennesaw, GA, USA), based on bovine serum albumin (BSA, a protein) and glutaraldehyde (GTA, crosslinker), has been approved for clinical use in the USA. Whey protein, a byproduct of cheese-making, comprised mainly of beta-lactoglobulin,alpha-lactalbumin and BSA. Even though the molecular weight of BSA is about three times larger than the molecular of beta-lactoglobulin and alpha-lactalbumin, all three proteins are rich in free epsilon-amino groups (can react with GTA) and globular proteins. This similarity make whey protein a potential candidate to replace BSA in the tissue adhesive since whey protein is abundant and much cheaper than BSA. In this study, whey protein isolate (WPI) was used as a protein polymer with GTA as a crosslinker to evaluate the feasibility of whey protein for tissue adhesive formulation. Results showed that the WPI/GTA adhesive exhibited a comparable adhesive strength to BioGlue (R) control.

• 出版日期2018-8
• 单位东北农业大学