Self-assembled natural biomaterials offer a variety of ready-made nanostructures available for basic science research and technological applications. Most natural structural materials are made of self-assembled nanofibers with diameters in the nanometer range. Among these materials, chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide after cellulose and is part of the exoskeleton or arthropods and mollusk shells. Chitin has several desirable properties as a biomaterial including mechanical strength, chemical and thermal stability, and biocompatibility. However, chitin insolubility in most organic solvents has somewhat limited its use. In this research highlight, we describe recent developments in producing biogenic chitin nanofibers using self-assembly from a solution of squid pen beta-chitin in hexafluoroisopropanol. With this solution based assembly, we have demonstrated chitin-silk composite self-assembly, chitin nanofiber fabrication across length-scales, and manufacturing of chitin nanofiber substrates for tissue engineering.

中文翻译：

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自组装甲壳质纳米纤维及其应用。

自组装天然生物材料为基础科学研究和技术应用提供了多种现成的纳米结构。大多数天然结构材料由直径在纳米范围内的自组装纳米纤维制成。在这些材料中，几丁质是仅次于纤维素的第二大丰富多糖，是外骨骼或节肢动物和软体动物壳的一部分。几丁质作为生物材料具有几种理想的特性，包括机械强度，化学和热稳定性以及生物相容性。但是，几丁质在大多数有机溶剂中的不溶性在某种程度上限制了它的使用。在这项研究重点中，我们描述了使用鱿鱼笔β-几丁质在六氟异丙醇中的自组装方法生产生物几丁质纳米纤维的最新进展。