Extruded collagen fibres for tissue-engineering applications: influence of collagen concentration and NaCl amount

Extruded collagen fibres have been shown to be a competitive biomaterial for tissue-engineering applications. Since different tissues are coming in different textures, as far as it is concerned their fibre diameter and consequently their mechanical properties, herein we aim to investigate the influence of the collagen concentration and the amount of NaCl on the properties of these fibres. Scanning electron microscopy study revealed that the substructure of the collagen fibres was the same, regardless of the treatment. The thermal properties were found to be independent of the collagen concentration or the amount of NaCl utilized (P > 0.05). An inversely proportional relationship between dry fibre diameter and stress at break was observed. Increasing the collagen concentration yielded fibres with significant higher diameter (P < 0.002), strain (P < 0.009) and force (P < 0.001) values, whilst the stress (P < 0.008) and modulus (P < 0.009) values were decreased. For the fabrication of fibres with reproducible properties, 20% NaCl was found to be the optimum. Overall, reconstituted collagen fibres were produced with properties similar to native or synthetic fibres to suit a wide range of tissue-engineering applications.