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A mild process to design silk scaffolds with reduced ?-sheet structure and various topographies at the nanometer scale.

ABSTRACT: Three-dimensional (3-D) porous silk scaffolds with good biocompatibility and minimal immunogenicity show promise in a range of tissue regeneration applications. However, the challenge remains to effectively fabricate their microstructures and mechanical properties to satisfy the specific requirements of different tissues. In this study, silk scaffolds were fabricated to form an extracellular matrix (ECM) mimetic nanofibrous architecture using a mild process. A slowly increasing concentration process was applied to regulate silk self-assembly into nanofibers in aqueous solution. Then glycerol was blended with the nanofiber solution and induced silk crystallization in the lyophilization process, endowing freeze-dried scaffolds with water stability. The glycerol was leached from the scaffolds, leaving a similar porous structure at the micrometer scale but different topographies at the nanoscale. Compared to previous salt-leached and methanol-annealed scaffolds, the present scaffolds showed lower ?-sheet content, softer mechanical property and improved cell growth and differentiation behaviors, suggesting their promising future as platforms for controlling stem cell fate and soft tissue regeneration.

SUBMITTER: Pei Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4293369 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A mild process to design silk scaffolds with reduced β-sheet structure and various topographies at the nanometer scale.

Pei Yazhen Y Liu Xi X Liu Shanshan S Lu Qiang Q Liu Jing J Kaplan David L DL Zhu Hesun H

Acta biomaterialia 20141115

Three-dimensional (3-D) porous silk scaffolds with good biocompatibility and minimal immunogenicity show promise in a range of tissue regeneration applications. However, the challenge remains to effectively fabricate their microstructures and mechanical properties to satisfy the specific requirements of different tissues. In this study, silk scaffolds were fabricated to form an extracellular matrix (ECM) mimetic nanofibrous architecture using a mild process. A slowly increasing concentration pro ...[more]

PMID: 25463497

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Project description:Spider silk proteins are synthesized in the silk-producing glands, where the spidroins are produced, stored and processed into a solid fiber from a crystalline liquid solution. Despite great interest in the spider silk properties, that make this material suitable for biomedical and biotechnological applications, the mechanism of formation and spinning of the silk fibers has not been fully elucidated; and no combination of proteomic and transcriptomic study has been carried out so far in the spider silk-producing glands. Nephila clavipes is an attractive orb-web spider to investigate the spinning process of silk production, given the properties of strength, elasticity and biocompatibility of their silk fibers. Thus, considering that the combination of proteomic and transcriptomic analysis may reveal an extensive repertoire of novel proteins involved in the silk spinning process, and in order to facilitate and enable proteomics in this non-model organism, the current study aims to construct a high quality reference mRNA-derived protein database that could be used to identify tissue specific expression patterns in spider silk glands. Next-generation sequencing has offered a powerful and cost-efficient technique for the generation of transcriptomic datasets in non-model species using diverse platforms such as the Illumina HiSeq, Roche 454, Pacific Biosystems, and Applied Biosystems SOLiD; In the current study, the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform will be used to generate a N. clavipes spider silk glands transcriptome-based protein database. The transcriptome data generated in this study will provide a comprehensive and valuable genomic resource for future research of the group of spider silk-producing glands, in order to improve our understanding of the overall mechanism of action involved in production, secretion, storage, transport, protection and conformational changes of spidroins during the spinning process, and prey capture; and the results may be relevant for scientists in material Science, biology, biochemistry, and environmental scientists.

Dataset Information

A mild process to design silk scaffolds with reduced ?-sheet structure and various topographies at the nanometer scale.

Publications

A mild process to design silk scaffolds with reduced β-sheet structure and various topographies at the nanometer scale.

Similar Datasets

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