Question

(multiple choice)

1. Which of these is not an advantage of tropoelastin?
   1. Its mechanical properties can be easily tailored.
   2. It can be easily self-assembled into elastin.
   3. It can be used to engineer almost every tissue due to elastin’s presence in the ECM.
   4. It is cheap to manufacture and easily sourced.

Answer 1

a) Answer is (1) Its mechanical property can be easily tailored.

As tropoelastin is a precursor of elastin it is easily self assembled to form elastin. Elastin and elastin-based composites will be subjected to diverse fabrication processes, such as heating, electrospinning, wet spinning, solvent casting, freeze-drying, and cross-linking, for the manufacture of particles, fibers, gels, tubes, sheets and films. The resulting materials can be tailored to possess specific strength, elasticity, morphology, topography, porosity, wettability, surface charge and bioactivity. This extraordinary tunability of elastin-based constructs enables their use in a range of biomedical and tissue engineering applications. It is also cheap to manufacture and are easily sourced.