Chapter 13 - Silk fibroin and silk sericin in skin tissue engineering and wound healing: retrospect and prospects

Abstract

Skin is constantly exposed to the external environment and is challenged by various physical, chemical, mechanical, and biological factors that cause skin lesions with varying degrees of tissue loss. Although several forms of wound dressings are currently used in repair, they do not go well with the natural wound healing process and thus are reported to be suboptimal leading to scar formation. In order to achieve scarless skin regeneration, attempts are being made following tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies. One thrust area of research in skin regeneration is the development of biocompatible, bioresorbable, and bioactive scaffolds. Silk fibroin (SF) and silk sericin (SS), biopolymers derived from silkworms such as Bombyx mori and other wild varieties, offer attractive features including biocompatibility, tunable biodegradability, controllable tensile strength, processability in aqueous or organic media, ability to functionalize and load drugs, growth factors and other bioactive molecules, minimal inflammatory reactions in the host, abundant availability, and affordable costs. They are therefore extensively studied by various research groups. In this chapter, we provide comprehensive and categorical coverage of state-of-the-art literature on SF and SS biomaterials in skin tissue engineering and wound healing.