Design Principles for Deployable Fibers Inspired by Hagfish Defense.

ABSTRACT: Hagfish produce extraordinary slime as a defense mechanism, releasing exudate from glands that rapidly form a fibrous, soft, ultra-dilute, water-capturing network upon contact with seawater (up to 10 000 times its original volume). The gland thread cell (GTC) produces high-strength protein threads (filament diameter d_f = 1-3 µm) meticulously coiled into skeins (coil diameter D_o ∼ 150 µm) that rapidly unravel upon deployment to reveal their hidden length (L_f = 15 cm), forming a cohesive fibrous slime network through interaction with mucin vesicles and seawater. To date, no engineered material is able to replicate the fiber uncoiling mechanics observed in slime, which are responsible for the unique set of mechanical properties that slime exhibits. Focusing on

SUBMITTER: Hossain MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12752651 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature