Advanced Recombinant and Regenerated Silk Materials for Medicine and Tissue Engineering

Abstract

A spiderweb is one of the strongest natural materials. The strength of its filaments can reach 1.3–1.5 GPa, which is comparable to the strength of steel. Its toughness reaches enormous values of 194–283 MJ/m3; therefore, textiles based on spider yarns may be promising in the production of composite materials for aircraft and automobiles. Spiderweb fibers have high biocompatibility and antibacterial properties, support cell viability, and do not cause an immune response. Thus, they can be used for manufacturing three-dimensional porous cell scaffolds for tissue engineering purposes. The undoubted advantages of spiderweb fibers include the fact that they do not melt. Therefore, textile products made of spider silk can be used for the production of military equipment. Unfortunately, mass production of spider silk using breeding of spiders is not possible. In this regard, development of synthetic analogues using recombinant DNA technology is of current interest. In order to create the technology for manufacturing artificial silk fiber and medical materials, this review presents the main findings in studying the rheological properties of solutions of spidroin (the main web material) and silk fibroin. These findings demonstrated how structural transformations of spidroin are induced by a change in the pH, salt content, and shear stress, and determine its ability for self-organization in aqueous solutions. An analysis of the most important studies of wet, dry–wet spinning, and electrospinning of fibers is presented, as is a comparison of the mechanical properties of the fibers of recombinant spidroin and natural spider fibers. Significant recent successes in this area allow us to advance toward the creation of a new generation of fibrous materials.