Abstract
Animal cell culture generally requires supplementation with fetal bovine serum (FBS), or its substitution, into the culture media. Sera contain different unidentified and obscure elements and the risk of infections, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is of serious concern with high cost. Therefore, supplementation of sera into culture media is major obstacle for purification to recover cell products and this limits pharmaceutical acceptance of products. In this chapter, we examined whether the sericin protein, derived from the silkworm cocoon, can be effectively used as a substitute for FBS in animal cell culture. Antheraea mylitta (Tasar) silk protein which is different from conventional domesticated silkworm Bombyx mori was successfully regenerated by the alkaline method, the natural properties of silk are compared with the native silk fiber and regenerated silk sericin. The regenerated sericin characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) showed that the sericin possessed a random coil conformation and β-sheet structure. XRD diffraction peaks confirm the preservation of the β-sheet structure typical of silk II sericin. In vitro examination (live/dead assay) of sericin on behavior of human immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaTs) exhibits enhanced cell-adhesive properties. The results confirm that the regenerated sericin is a suitable medium for biomedical applications.
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