A Keratin-based biomaterial as a promising dresser for skin wound healing

Keratin-based biomaterials can be considered as the beneficial platform for designing suitable wound dressers. One of the most common natural materials that are composed of keratin and lipid is snakes shed skin. In this new study, shed skin of two different Omani snakes; Bitis arietans snake (Puff adder, "P") and Telescopus dhara snake (Arabian Cat snake, "C"); were examined as wound dresser. The presence of lipid and keratin were assessed using Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). 3- Layered filamentous morphology of the P shed skin and the 3-layered compact structure of C shed skin were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). X-Ray powder Diffraction (XRD) analysis proved two main peaks corresponding to the α-helix and β-sheet of the protein. Crystallinity index (CI) of P and C shed skins were obtained from XRD peaks 42.85 and 28.57%. The in vivo and histopathological results indicated that skin reconstruction was effectively improved under P shed skin treatment as compared with negative and positive control (PC) and C groups. Superior histopathological scores were the beneficial properties of P group over the positive control. The synergistic effect of natural extracellular matrix-mimicking structure and keratin beneficial proteins for wound healing could develop a natural substrate for wound healing in the clinical setting.