Abstract
Due to its properties, such as biodegradability, low density, excellent biocompatibility and unique mechanics, spider silk has been used as a natural biomaterial for a myriad of applications. First clinical applications of spider silk as suture material go back to the 18th century. Nowadays, since natural production using spiders is limited due to problems with farming spiders, recombinant production of spider silk proteins seems to be the best way to produce material in sufficient quantities. The availability of recombinantly produced spider silk proteins, as well as their good processability has opened the path towards modern biomedical applications. Here, we highlight the research on spider silk-based materials in the field of tissue engineering and summarize various two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds made of spider silk. Finally, different applications of spider silk-based materials are reviewed in the field of tissue engineering in vitro and in vivo.
Highlights
Spider silk is a natural material accessed by humans for millennia for various applications.In ancient times, Greeks and Romans stopped the bleeding of battle wounds by covering them with spider silk poultices, and these poultices were used as an astringent, a styptic and a febrifuge [1,2].Female orb-weaving spiders produce up to seven different types of silk using different silk glands and spinnerets located at the posterior end of the spider’s abdomen [3]
These seven types of silk have diverse properties depending on their tasks as a protective shelter, dispersal, prey capture device, or as a dragline which the spider uses as a life-line [1,3,4]. Among these seven different silks, major ampullate (MA) silk, which is produced by the major ampullate glands aka as dragline silk, has been investigated in most detail
To avoid any any toxicity transferred from the application of toxic organic solvents during electrospinning or post toxicity transferred from the application of toxic organic solvents during electrospinning or post treatment of the silk fibers, a modified system was introduced by DeSimone et al [49]
Summary
Spider silk is a natural material accessed by humans for millennia for various applications. Female orb-weaving spiders produce up to seven different types of silk using different silk glands and spinnerets located at the posterior end of the spider’s abdomen [3] These seven types of silk have diverse properties depending on their tasks as a protective shelter, dispersal, prey capture device, or as a dragline which the spider uses as a life-line [1,3,4]. It was shown that MaSp3 repetitive regions contain larger and more polar amino acids than that in MaSp1 or MaSp2 [9] Most spidroins consist of a repetitive core domain flanked by nonrepetitive amino- and carboxyl-terminal domains [10,11] The major ampullate spidroins assemble and form distinguishable substructures, which result in a hierarchically structured fiber. This fiber is in some cases surrounded by glycoproteins and lipids [12]
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