Production Of Nanofibers From Bovine Serum Albumin

Scientists from the Department of mechanical engineering, Israel Institute of technology and Haifa Luther Berry nanotechnology Institute have made use of natural protein extracted from bovine blood to make nanofibers that can be used to produce new generation of medical sutures and bandages.

Bovine serum albumin is similar to a large number of serum proteins in human body. The production of nanofibers has the characteristics of good biocompatibility and durable.

In order to extract nanofibers, scientists added a chemical substance to bovine serum albumin solution, which weakens the binding force of these proteins tightly together and forms a dilute solution that is easier to extract. Then, researchers use the technology of electrospinning to produce high-strength medical nanofibers.

Over the years, researchers have been trying to develop a natural wound protein suture material that is more suitable for human tissue than natural materials, but the results are not satisfactory.

So scientists turned their attention to the new electrospinning technology.

The technology is a new processing method using polymer solution to stretch and bend the nanofibers under the action of electric field.

Because electrospun fibers are very similar to natural extracellular matrix in structure and have good biocompatibility and strength and stability, they are ideal medical fiber materials.

Professor Aiyar Zusman, who is responsible for the research at Israel Institute of technology, said that nanofibers produced by this technology can be used not only in sutures and bandages, but also in biomedical, electronic, aerospace, clothing and other fields.

In addition, this method can also be applied to other natural proteins.