Keratins' Advantages and Applications in Tissue Engineering: A Review

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Tissue Engineering
• Regenerative Medicine

Background:

• Keratin is a protein-based biomaterial with potential in tissue engineering.
• Traditional protein materials like collagen and silk fibroin have limitations.
• Keratin's unique structural properties offer advantages over conventional biomaterials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review keratin-based materials and their tissue engineering applications.
• To highlight keratin's advantages compared to collagen and silk fibroin.
• To identify future research directions for keratin in tissue engineering.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases.
• Analysis of publications focusing on keratin-based materials and tissue engineering applications.
• Review of keratin's structural characteristics and properties.

Main Results:

• Keratin's disulfide bond-rich structure imparts unique advantages: sustainability, versatility, and controllable degradability.
• Significant research interest in keratin for tissue engineering emerged between 2015 and 2025.
• Keratin shows promise as a superior alternative to traditional protein-based biomaterials.

Conclusions:

• Keratin-based materials present a promising platform for tissue engineering applications.
• Further research is needed to overcome keratin's brittleness and identify stable extraction sources (e.g., marine sources).
• Long-term clinical trials are essential to validate keratin's efficacy and safety in regenerative medicine.