Preparation and characterization of regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin fiber containing recombinant cell‐adhesive proteins; Nonwoven fiber and monofilament

Abstract

AbstractTo improve the cell‐adhesive character of Bombyx mori silk fibroin fiber, the regenerated B. mori silk fibroin fibers with recombinant cell‐adhesive proteins were prepared. The recombinant proteins were originally designed in our laboratory and expressed in Eschericchia coli; one is the protein with the primary structure of (TGRGDSPAS)8 which was designed based on the cell adhesive sequence in fibronectin and the other is (GERGDLGPQGIAGQRGVVGERGERGERGAS)8GPPGPCC GGG originated from the cell adhesive sequences in collagen. The nonwoven silk fibroin nano‐fibers including these recombinant proteins were prepared by electrospinning method from the hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) solutions of mixture of B. mori silk fibroin and the recombinant proteins. The cell‐adhesive characters of such nonwoven silk fibers were much improved compared with that of the nonwoven silk fibroin fibers without the recombinant proteins. In addition, the degradation rates of the nonwoven fibers were accelerated by mixing of the recombinant proteins into silk fibroin. Here, we also prepared the regenerated silk fibroin monofilaments including the recombinant proteins by wet spinning from the HFIP dope solution. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008