Development of a Novel Material to Promote Wound Healing at Bronchial Defects.

Background: Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a critical complication that may progress to pneumonia and empyema, but optimal treatment remains uncertain. Our purpose was to develop a novel material for bronchial occlusion that can be used to treat BPF by blocking airflow and promoting wound healing.

Methods: Sponges were prepared in concentrations of 25, 40, and 50 mg/dL of silk-elastin by hydrophobic processing.

Effect of an artificial silk elastin-like protein on the migration and collagen production of mouse fibroblasts.

A silk elastin-like protein (SELP) is an artificial compound composing silk fibroin-like and elastin-like tandem repeats. The objective of this study is to evaluate the SELP effect on the migration, proliferation, and proteins production of L929 mouse fibroblasts. Upon culturing with different concentrations of SELP, the cells migration and their collagen production significantly enhanced in the SELP concentrations from 10(-3) to 10 μg/ml.

Effect of ProNectin F derivatives on cell attachment and proliferation.

ProNectin F (PnF) was chemically modified by introducing some functional groups to prepare various derivatives of primary amino (PnF-N₁), tertiary amino (PnF-N₃), quaternary ammonium (PnF-N₄), carboxyl (PnF-COOH) and sulfonyl groups (PnF-SO₃H). When C3H10T1/2 cells were cultured on non-treated dishes coated with the derivatives, the number of mesenchymal cells attached to the culture dishes increased for the coating with PnF-COOH and PnF-SO₃H, even at their low adsorption amount. The cytotoxicity was high for the coating of PnF-N₁ and PnF-N₄ compared with that of the PnF-N₃, PnF-COOH and PnF-SO₃H.