Oxidized sucrose: A potent and biocompatible crosslinker for three-dimensional fibrous protein scaffolds

Oxidized sucrose, an un-traditional biobased crosslinker, was proved as effective as glutaraldehyde in improving water stability of ultrafine fibrous proteins without causing cytotoxicity. Proteins from agricultural byproducts, such as zein, are abundantly available for production of industrial and medical products, but are restricted by their poor water stability and wet properties. An effective and safe crosslinking method became indispensable for protein-based materials, especially biomaterials. Fibrous basic units with sub-micron scale were critical for biomaterials to resemble native extracellular matrices (ECMs) structurally. In this research, sucrose was oxidized into polar polyaldehydes to crosslink ultrafine fibrous scaffolds from corn protein. The control groups were crosslinked with glutaraldehyde, a known highly effective crosslinker with considerable toxicity. With similar improvement in water stability, the oxidized sucrose crosslinked scaffolds showed much better cytocompatibility than the glutaraldehyde crosslinked ones via in vitro study with preosteoblast cells.