Silk Fibroin as a Functional Biomaterial for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Tissue engineering (TE) is the approach to combine cells with scaffold materials and appropriate growth factors to regenerate or replace damaged or degenerated tissue or organs. The scaffold material as a template for tissue formation plays the most important role in TE. Among scaffold materials, silk fibroin (SF), a natural protein with outstanding mechanical properties, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and bioresorbability has attracted significant attention for TE applications. SF is commonly dissolved into an aqueous solution and can be easily reconstructed into different material formats, including films, mats, hydrogels, and sponges via various fabrication techniques. These include spin coating, electrospinning, freeze drying, physical, and chemical crosslinking techniques. Furthermore, to facilitate fabrication of more complex SF-based scaffolds with high precision techniques including micro-patterning and bio-printing have recently been explored. This review introduces the physicochemical and mechanical properties of SF and looks into a range of SF-based scaffolds that have been recently developed. The typical TE applications of SF-based scaffolds including bone, cartilage, ligament, tendon, skin, wound healing, and tympanic membrane, will be highlighted and discussed, followed by future prospects and challenges needing to be addressed.

Porous Silk Scaffold Derived from Formic Acid: Characterization and Biocompatibility

“…Silk fibers have been traditionally utilized as sutures in surgery for centuries. Recently, regenerated silk materials have been explored for possible applications in biomedicine [1]. A lot of studies indicated the cell attachment and proliferation on silk fibroin materials [2].…”

“…Silk is a unique material, which has historically been regarded as high-grade raw materials of textile for its strength and luster. Recently, silk has become a promising biomaterial for tissue engineering because of several desirable properties [1]. In particular, these properties include biocompatibility, biodegradation, excellent mechanical properties, and versatility in processing into multiple materials formats [2].…”

Insights into the Role of Biopolymer Aerogel Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

“…Many biopolymers and two-dimensional nanomaterials have shown great potential to increase their mechanical properties for future rough tissue engineering applications such as bone, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. Upon using tissue scaffolds for skin and wound regeneration, the risk of scar tissue was demonstrated in some biopolymers such as silk fibroin [ 155 ]; thus, more research needs to be done to move towards safe clinical trials and approved products without any side effects based on these excellent biomaterials. Regeneration of rough tissues has other challenges, such as the kind of mineral content in bone tissue scaffold, which has an optimum in osteogenesis and an effect of the content on bone repair [ 156 ].…”

Preparation and biological characteristics of a bovine acellular tendon fiber material

“…(b) The scaffold should support host remodeling while retaining sufficient mechanical strength, inducing minimal inflammatory and immune responses, and avoiding disease transmission 8 . Currently, materials used for ligament/tendon scaffold construction include silk, 9 collagen, 10 polyglycolic acid (PGA), polylactic acid (PLA), 11 and PGA/PLA mixtures 12‐15 . Most of these materials do not share many characteristics with ligament/tendon ECM and fail to meet the standards for ideal scaffold construction.…”