The advancement of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has generated a growing demand for collagen fibers that both resemble native collagen fibers as closely as possible in terms of structure and function, and can be produced in large quantities and processed by current textile technologies. However, the collagen spinning methodologies reported thus far have not matured sufficiently to provide a spinning rate suitable for large-scale production and also generate fibers with insufficient mechanical properties. In the current study, we introduce three new elements into existing collagen fiber spinning technologies: the use of recombinant human collagen, high concentration dope, and spin drawing. At the optimal draw ratio, mechanically strong, aligned, thin fibers, with diameters similar to those of cotton or polyester fibers, are obtained at rates exceeding 1,000 m/h. The resulting fibers display an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 150 MPa and a strain of 0.21 after being hydrated in PBS, values which are comparable to and even surpass those reported for human patellar and Achilles tendons. The production technology is simple, based entirely on existing fiber production machinery, and suitable for scale-up and rapid production of large fiber quantities.
Keywords: biotextile; fiber; recombinant human collagen; wet spinning.