Silk Biomaterials for Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Silk is a natural fibrous polymer with application potential in regenerative medicine. Increasing interest remains for silk materials in bone tissue engineering due to their characteristics in biocompatibility, biodegradability and mechanical properties. Plenty of the in vitro and in vivo studies confirmed the advantages of silk in accelerating bone regeneration. Silk is processed into scaffolds, hydrogels, and films to facilitate different bone regenerative applications. Bioactive factors such as growth factors and drugs, and stem cells are introduced to silk‐based matrices to create friendly and osteogenic microenvironments, directing cell behaviors and bone regeneration. The recent progress in silk‐based bone biomaterials is discussed and focused on different fabrication and functionalization methods related to osteogenesis. The challenges and potential targets of silk bone materials are highlighted to evaluate the future development of silk‐based bone materials.

Biological Efficacy Comparison of Natural Tussah Silk and Mulberry Silk Nanofiber Membranes for Guided Bone Regeneration

“…Meanwhile, numerous fiber-like structures ( Figure 7 , yellow arrows) surrounded the new bone, suggesting typical collagen deposition, which served as nucleation sites for bone mineralization. 37 …”

“…Collagen fibers are the central component in the natural bone matrix. 37 The abundance of collagen fibers was found near the new bone ( Figure 7 ), which could act as a template for further formation of hydroxyapatite. In addition, tussah silk exhibits superior osteoconductivity than B. mori silk, including cell proliferation and osteoblast differentiation in vitro 32 and bone regeneration in vivo.…”

Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine-Based Multilayered Coatings for Enhanced Bone Formation

“…Meanwhile, the angiogenesis can induce the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into osteoblasts and promote osteoid formation, where the enhanced osteoblast differentiation can in turn facilitate secretion of factors such as β -catenin and BMP-2 to promote the vascularization process. Therefore, osteogenesis is tightly connected with angiogenic process ( Ding et al, 2021 ).…”

Elimination of Induced Hypoxic Regions in Depth of 3D Porous Silk Scaffolds by the Introduction of Channel Configuration

“…Considering the limited supply of autografts, immune response risk of allografts, and insufficient osteogenic capacity of bone substitutes, appropriate bioactive bone graft is crucially vital which still remains a major challenge in biomedical engineering [8][9][10][11]. An ideal scaffold for bone tissue engineering should mimic osteoblast extracellular matrix (ECM) in order to prepare an environment for cell growth and support the bone remodeling process.…”