Programming fibril alignment and mechanical response in reconstituted collagen fibers using reagent-free biomimetic energetic electron crosslinking

Abstract

Due to its abundance in vertebrates, including humans, collagen is deemed to be a highly attractive bioderived material which bears large potential for cutting-edge applications in a variety of biomedical fields, including scaffolds, implantology, artificial organs, regenerative medicine and mechanobiology. Depending on structure, including hierarchical fibril alignment and crosslinking, in vivo collagen assemblies are characterized by Young's moduli ranging from some kPa to GPa. When heading for biomimicry of scaffolds and implants based on reconstituted collagen, control of mechanical response by fibril alignment and biomimetic crosslinking constitute central challenges. Within this work we demonstrate, that energetic electrons are a promising tool to permanently imprint prestrain-induced alignment of collagen fibrils within macroscopic collagen fibers by introduction of biomimetic crosslinks, resulting in elastic properties bridging orders of magnitude.