In Vitro Evaluation of Spider Silk Meshes as a Potential Biomaterial for Bladder Reconstruction

Abstract

Reconstruction of the bladder by means of both natural and synthetic materials remains a challenge due to severe adverse effects such as mechanical failure. Here we investigate the application of spider major ampullate gland-derived dragline silk from the Nephila edulis spider, a natural biomaterial with outstanding mechanical properties and a slow degradation rate, as a potential scaffold for bladder reconstruction by studying the cellular response of primary bladder cells to this biomaterial. We demonstrate that spider silk without any additional biological coating supports adhesion and growth of primary human urothelial cells (HUCs), which are multipotent bladder cells able to differentiate into the various epithelial layers of the bladder. HUCs cultured on spider silk did not show significant changes in the expression of various epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and fibrosis associated genes, and demonstrated only slight reduction in the expression of adhesion and cellular differentiation genes. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis showed that most of the silk-exposed HUCs maintain an undifferentiated immunophenotype. These results demonstrate that spider silk from the Nephila edulis spider supports adhesion, survival and growth of HUCs without significantly altering their cellular properties making this type of material a suitable candidate for being tested in pre-clinical models for bladder reconstruction.

An Investigation on the Anticancer Effect of Spider Web in Human Cervical Cell Line

“…With the development of modern medicine, these materials have been lost in importance for a long time, and they have become popular in search for different solutions for serious side effects of drugs. The SWE was one of those natural materials which has been used for different purposes such as healing wounds in some areas of Balkan peninsula throughout history (8). It is also used in the area of medicine as a biomaterial because of its endurance and elasticity (7,8).…”

“…Therefore, we extracted the spider web with different methods and analyzed it using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (Lc-MS/MS). According to our previous study, there are various phenolic substances such as gallic acid, trans caffeic acid, naringin and melatonin at a very high level in the spider web and they are preserved despite natural events such as sunlight, wind or rain (TurkPatent, 2017/19916) ( Table 1) (8). These substances play active roles in breaking the drug resistance in cancer cell lines that show multi-drug resistance and also, naringenin and quercetin are the most known members of the flavonoid family (9).…”

Spider Silk for Tissue Engineering Applications

“…Natural fibers supported adhesion and growth of HUCs, while maintaining their undifferentiated state. Results did not show significant changes in the expression of various epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, as well as fibrosis-associated genes and only demonstrated a slight reduction in the expression of adhesion-related and cellular differentiation genes [45]. Further, the cell-material interactions with spider silk and the ability of HUCs to form the mucosa of the bladder was studied.…”

Optical fluorescent spider silk electrospun nanofibers with embedded cerium oxide nanoparticles

“…11,12 However, very little research has been done on the formation of nanofibers recombinant spider silk protein (rSSPs) via electrospinning process with both electrical and optical characterizations. 13,14 Our work suggests electrospinning of rSSP (MaSp1) nanofibers with active cerium oxide nanoparticle (ceria NPs) to create an electrospun mat with specific optical characteristics can be possibly used for biomedical applications. Ceria NPs have a strong capability to act as free radical scavenger and to capture dissolved oxygen in liquid media.…”