Spider Chitin. The biomimetic potential and applications of Caribena versicolor tubular chitin

•a-Chitin scaffolds are compatible with human progenitor cell line (hPheo1)•a-Chitin is compatible with cardiomyocytes differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells•Tubular a-chitin can be used as template for synthesis of hybrid inorganic catalysts Diverse fields of modern technology and biomedicine can benefit from the application of ready-to-use chitin-based scaffolds. In this work we show for the first time the applicability of tubular and porous chitin from Caribena versicolor spiders as a scaffold for the development of an effective CuO/Cu(OH)2 catalyst for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AM), and as a scaffold for the tissue engineering of selected cells. The formation of CuO/Cu(OH)2 phases on and within the chitinous tubes leads to a hybrid material with excellent catalytic performance with respect to the reduction of p-nitrophenol. On the other hand, experimental results provide for the first time strong evidence for the biocompatibility of spider chitin with different cell types, a human progenitor cell line (hPheo1), as well as cardiomyocytes differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) that were cultured on a tube-like scaffold.