Abstract
Silk fibroin (SF), a natural polymer produced by Bombyx mori silkworms, has been extensively explored to prepare porous scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Here, we demonstrate, a scaffold made of SF, which exhibits compression modulus comparable to natural cancellous bone while retaining the appropriate porosities and interconnected pore architecture. The scaffolds also exhibit high resistance to in-vitro proteolytic degradation due to the dominant beta sheet conformation of the SF protein. Additionally, the scaffolds are prepared using a simple method of microparticle aggregation. We also demonstrate, for the first time, a method to prepare SF micro-particles using a Hexafluoroisopropanol-Methanol solvent-coagulant combination. SF microparticles obtained using this method are monodisperse, spherical, non-porous and extremely crystalline. These micro-particles have been further aggregated together to form a 3D scaffold. The aggregation is achieved by random packing of these microparticles and fusing them together using a dilute SF solution. Preliminary in-vitro cell culture and in-vivo implantation studies demonstrate that the scaffolds are biocompatible and they exhibit the appropriate early markers, making them promising candidates for bone regeneration.
Highlights
Bone regeneration remains to be an active and flourishing area for research today[1,2,3,4]
The particles are aggregated in a random packing conformation and fused together to form the 3D scaffold
The microparticles so obtained were aggregated together in random packing and dilute Silk Fibroin (SF) solution was used as a glue to fuse these particles together as per the protocol described in Nisal et al.[28]
Summary
Bone regeneration remains to be an active and flourishing area for research today[1,2,3,4]. The scaffolds so obtained are characterized by interconnected pores, controlled pore size, limited porosity and excellent mechanical properties. The microparticles so obtained were aggregated together in random packing and dilute SF solution was used as a glue to fuse these particles together as per the protocol described in Nisal et al.[28].
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