Stepwisely Assembled Multicomponent Fiber with High Water Content and Superior Mechanical Properties for Artificial Ligament

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Germany), 2024-06, Vol.20 (25), p.e2308063-n/a
• Main Authors: Huang, Hao, Wang, Weijie, Liu, Zexin, Jian, Hanxin, Xue, Bing, Zhu, Liping, Yue, Kan, Yang, Shuguang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biocompatibility; Biomedical materials; Body fluids; Bones; Dopamine; Fatigue strength; high strength; high water content; In vitro methods and tests; ligament; Ligaments; load‐bearing capacity; Mechanical properties; Modulus of elasticity; Moisture content; multicomponent fiber; Polysaccharides
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202308063

The ligament, which connects bones at the joints, has both high water content and excellent mechanical properties in living organisms. However, it is still challenging to fabricate fibrous materials that possess high water content and ligament‐like mechanical characteristics simultaneously. Herein, the design and preparation of a ligament‐mimicking multicomponent fiber is reported through stepwise assembly of polysaccharide, calcium, and dopamine. In simulated body fluid, the resulting fiber has a water content of 40 wt%, while demonstrating strength of ≈120 MPa, a Young's modulus of ≈3 GPa, and a toughness of ≈25 MJ m−3. Additionally, the multicomponent fiber exhibits excellent creep and fatigue resistance, as well as biocompatibility to support cell growth in vitro. These findings suggest that the fiber has potential for engineering high‐performance artificial ligament. This work presents a ligament‐like multicomponent fiber via stepwise assembly of polysaccharide, calcium, and dopamine. The resulting fiber (ACCP fiber) exhibits superior mechanical properties, high water content, and biocompatibility in simulated body fluid, which has great potential to be used as functional and durable artificial ligament in the field of tissue replacement.