Silk fibroin and silk sericin composite hydrogel encapsulated exosomes promote wound healing

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that the hydrogel formed by composite biomaterials is more advantageous than that formed by homogenous material. Natural silk is mainly composed of two proteins: silk fibroin (SF) and silk sericin(SS). SF has favorable mechanical properties, while SS has high cell affinity and natural autofluorescence properties. In our study, we explored the beneficial effect of the composite hydrogel formed by a mixture of silk fibroin (SF) and silk sericin (SS) in tissue repair. The composite hydrogel was used to encapsulate and deliver the exosomes derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UMSC-Exo).