Novel porous soy protein-based blend structures for biomedical applications: Microstructure, mechanical, and physical properties

Use of naturally derived materials for biomedical applications is steadily increasing. Soy protein has advantages over various types of natural proteins employed for biomedical applications due to its low price, nonanimal origin, and relatively long storage time and stability. In the current study, blends of soy protein with other polymers (gelatin, alginate, pectin, polyvinyl alcohol, and polyethylene glycol) were developed and studied. The mechanical tensile properties of dense films were studied in order to select the best secondary polymer for porous three-dimensional structures. The porous soy–gelatin and soy–alginate structures were then studied for physical properties, degradation behavior, and microstructure. The results show that these blends can be assembled into porous three-dimensional structures by combining chemical crosslinking with freeze-drying. The soy–alginate blends are advantageous over soy–gelatin blends, demonstrated better stability, and degradation time along with controlled swelling behavior due to more effective crosslinking and higher water uptake than soy–gelatin blends. Water vapor transmission rate experiments showed that all porous blend structures were in the desired range for burn treatment [2000–2500 g/(m² d)] and can be controlled by the crosslinking process. We conclude that these novel porous three-dimensional structures have a high potential for use as scaffolds for tissue engineering, especially for skin regeneration applications.