The Process Development of Electrospun Silk Fibroin/Sacchachitosan Membranes for Endotoxin Removal Applications

Endotoxins must be removed from vena injection type bio-drugs or implantable biomaterials prior to its administration into the human bodies to avoid any adverse side effect such as fever, abnormal organ metabolism, and even death. The objective of this study is to develop electrospun silk fibroin (SF)/Sacchachitosan membranes for endotoxin removal. Sacchachitosan, derivative from wasted Ganoderma lucidum, is used as the model compound to investigate the chemical based purification method for endotoxin removal. Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) test and viscometric molecular weight method were used to establish the processing – property relationship of various treatment conditions on the resulted endotoxin level and molecular weight reduction on Sacchachitosan. The target of the treatment is less than endotoxin level of 0.5 EU/g. Next step is to combine the alkali-resistible silk fibroin with Sacchachitosan in the solution dopes and fabricate them into nanofiber webs by electrospinning technology. This silk fibroin (SF)/Sacchachitosan membranes are regenerationable via alkali treatment after usage of endotoxin purification. It will be beneficial to the future development of high-end implantable biomaterial based medical devices.