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Research article2022Peer reviewedOpen access

Innovative Green Way to Design Biobased Electrospun Fibers from Wheat Gluten and These Fibers' Potential as Absorbents of Biofluids

Muneer, Faraz; Hedenqvist, Mikael S.; Hall, Stephen; Kuktaite, Ramune

Abstract

In this study, anew method was developed to successfully designsustainable microfibers from wheat gluten proteins using a nonreducingsolvent and electrospinning. We explored the morphology by X-ray tomography,scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and confocal laser scanning microscopy(CLSM), protein chemistry and cross-linking by size exclusion-high-performanceliquid chromatography (SE-HPLC), and secondary structure by Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) of fibers containing 15 and20% of gluten. The impact of heat (130 & DEG;C) post-treatment onthe polymerization properties of fibers and their absorption performancein different biofluids were also evaluated. The fibers with 20% glutenshowed a uniform architecture supported by a relatively stronger fibrousnetwork as compared to irregular and brittle fibers from 15% gluten.Heat treatment of fibers increased the protein cross-linking in allelectrospun fibers as compared to the non-heat-treated fibers, asevidenced by SE-HPLC. An increase in the amount of & alpha;-helicesand random coils was observed in the proteins of all of the heat-treatedfibers compared to the nontreated fibers by FT-IR. This suggestedthat the heat treatment contributed positively to the gluten protein'schemical rearrangements, e.g., aggregation, new hydrogen and isopeptidebonding, and conversion of some of the sulfhydryl groups into disulfidecross-links, contributing positively to the functional performance.The heat-treated electrospun fibers with 20% gluten showed a veryattractive blood absorption capacity (323%) and reasonable stabilityin phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) buffer compared to 15% gluten fibersand non-heat-treated fibers. Cotton-like fiber architecture, highblood absorption capacity, and reasonable stability in PBS bufferare properties desired for absorbents of biofluids and should be furtherexplored in healthcare and medical applications.

Keywords

gluten proteins; electrospinning; microfibers; protein structure; absorbents; blood absorption; medical textiles

Published in

ACS Environmental Au
2022, Volume: 2, number: 3, pages: 232-241