Photo-crosslinked soy protein-based electrospun scaffolds

Abstract

Among the plant-derived proteins, soy protein isolate (SPI) has been used in the development of different electrospun systems for biomedical applications, food technology and filtration systems. Despite the great potential of SPI, its processability and stability in physiological conditions are usually poor, limiting its applications. In this work, we explored the methacrylation of SPI to develop a photo-crosslinkable polymer (SPIMA) for electrospinning applications. After parameter optimization, SPIMA fibrous mats were successfully obtained by electrospinning. The resulting scaffolds were then photo-crosslinked by UV-light irradiation (λ = 365 nm) during different times. Interestingly, our findings highlighted that the developed photo-crosslinkable soy protein showed better processability and stability than unmodified protein. This procedure provides a feasible method for obtaining SPI crosslinked scaffolds.