Chitin was dissolved completely in 11 wt% NaOH/4 wt% urea aqueous solution via the freezing/thawing method. The chitin nanofibrous microspheres were fabricated through the self-assemble of the chitin chain in the aqueous system. In this case, the sheath-like structure of inclusion complex associated with chitin, NaOH and urea was broken via the heating way and the stiff chitin chain arranged parallelly and self-assembled into nanofibrils through the hydrogen bonding between the chitin chains to form chitin microsphere consisted of nanofibrils. The chitin microspheres with different size (5-150 mm) exhibited 3D-mesh nanofibrous structure and large surface area, which can promote the transport of the oxygen and protein. Furthermore, the homogeneous nanofribrous structure could enhance the adhesion of the cells on the microspheres, showing excellent biocompatibility, safety and adhesion to cells. These versatile biomimetic microspheres may provide a powerful tool to be used as an injectable system for non-invasive tissue regeneration engineering applications.

Thermal inducing self-assemble nanofibrils to construct chitin microspheres for tissue engineering

249th National Meeting (2015)

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