Keratose Self-Cross-Linked Wound Dressing for Iron Sequestration in Chronic Wounds.

Chronic wound diseases affect a large part of the world population, and therefore, novel treatments are becoming fundamental. People with chronic wounds show high iron and protease levels due to genetic disorders or other comorbidities. Since it was demonstrated that iron plays an important role in chronic wounds, being responsible for oxidative processes (ROS generation), while metalloproteinases prevent wound healing by literally "eating" the growing skin, it is crucial to design an appropriate wound dressing. In this paper, a novel bioactive dressing for binding iron in chronic wounds has been produced. Wool-derived keratose wound dressing in the form of films has been prepared by casting an aqueous solution of keratoses. These films are water-soluble; therefore, in order to increase their stability, they have been made insoluble through a thermal cross-link treatment. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) analyses clarified the structure and the properties of the keratose wound dressing films. The capability of this new biomaterial in iron sequestration has been investigated by testing the adsorption of Fe3+ by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The results suggest that the keratose cross-linked films can adsorb a large amount of iron (about 85% of the average amount usually present in chronic wounds) following pseudo-second-order kinetics and an intraparticle diffusion model, thus opening new perspectives in chronic wound care. Furthermore, the QSAR Toolbox was applied for conducting in silico tests and for predicting the chemical behavior of the C-Ker-film. All of the data suggest that the keratose bioactive dressing can significantly contribute to wound healing by mechanisms such as iron depletion, acting as a radical scavenger, diminishing the proteolytic damage, acting as a substrate in place of skin, and, finally, promoting tissue regeneration.

Sustainable Superheated Water Hydrolysis of Black Soldier Fly Exuviae for Chitin Extraction and Use of the Obtained Chitosan in the Textile Field.

Interest in insects as waste biomass bioconverters and their use as valuable resources for fat, proteins, and chitin has increased considerably in the last few years. In this study, proteins were extracted from defatted black soldier fly (BSF) (Hermetia illucens) exuviae by green hydrolysis using superheated water at 150 °C for 20 h, and the remaining chitin was deacetylated into chitosan and used as a finishing agent for polyester fabrics. A total amount of 7% fat, 40% proteins, and 20% chitin was obtained from BSF exuviae. Different hydrolysis times ranging from 1 to 20 h were tried until the complete purification of chitin. The purity of chitin and the obtained chitosan after deacetylation was assessed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis. A preliminary study was successfully carried out to use the obtained chitosan as a finishing agent for polyester pretreated fabrics using citric acid as a grafting agent. The presence of chitosan on the fabric was verified by scanning electron microscopy and by dyeing of the pretreated polyester fabric using a reactive dye with sulfonated groups that are able to be absorbed by electrostatic attraction because of the created cationic nature of the fiber surface treated by chitosan.

Multifunctional finishing of cotton using chitosan extracted from bio-waste.

In the current work, chitosan extracted from waste shrimp shells was used in finishing formulation for cotton fabric, along with DMDHEU and other chemicals, imparting multiple performance characteristics such as wrinkle free, antibacterial and flame retardant properties. The finished fabrics were evaluated for textile properties like tensile strength, bending length, yellowness index and functional properties like crease recovery angle, antibacterial activity and flame retardancy and also for the ecological properties like formaldehyde release. The finished fabric showed excellent crease recovery, antibacterial property and flame retardancy which were retained to a moderate extent even after 20 washes. Besides formaldehyde scavenging action, chitosan clearly showed its positive role in imparting multifunctional properties to cotton.

Vav GEFs regulate macrophage morphology and adhesion-induced Rac and Rho activation.

The Vav family of proteins have the potential to act as both signalling adapters and GEFs for Rho GTPases. They have therefore been proposed as regulators of the cytoskeleton in various cell types. We have used macrophages from mice deficient in all three Vav isoforms to determine how their function affects cell morphology and migration. Macrophages lacking Vav proteins adopt an elongated morphology and have enhanced migratory persistence in culture. To investigate the pathways through which Vav proteins exert their effects we analysed the responses of macrophages to the chemoattractant CSF-1 and to adhesion. We found that morphological and signalling responses of macrophages to CSF-1 did not require Vav proteins. In contrast, adhesion-induced cell spreading, RhoA and Rac1 activation and cell signalling were all dependent on Vav proteins. We propose that Vav proteins affect macrophage morphology and motile behaviour by coupling adhesion receptors to Rac1 and RhoA activity and regulating adhesion signalling events such as paxillin and ERK1/2 phosphorylation by acting as adapters.

Vav1 and Vav2 play different roles in macrophage migration and cytoskeletal organization.

Vav family proteins act as guanine nucleotide exchange factors for Rho family proteins, which are known to orchestrate cytoskeletal changes and cell migration in response to extracellular stimuli. Using mice deficient for Vav1, Vav2 and/or Vav3, overlapping and isoform-specific functions of the three Vav proteins have been described in various hematopoietic cell types, but their roles in regulating cell morphology and migration have not been studied in detail. To investigate whether Vav isoforms have redundant or unique functions in regulating adhesion and migration, we investigated the properties of Vav1-deficient and Vav2-deficient macrophages. Both Vav1-deficient and Vav2-deficient cells have a smaller adhesive area; yet, only Vav1-deficient cells have a reduced migration speed, which coincides with a lower level of microtubules. Vav2-deficient macrophages display a high level of constitutive membrane ruffling, but neither Vav1 nor Vav2 is required for colony stimulating factor-1-induced membrane ruffling and cell spreading. Our results suggest that the migration speed of macrophages is regulated independently of spread area or membrane ruffling and that Vav1 is selectively required to maintain a normal migration speed.