Abstract
Silk sericin (SS) can accelerate cell proliferation and attachment; however, SS can be extracted by various methods, which result in SS exhibiting different physical and biological properties. We found that SS produced from various extraction methods has different molecular weights, zeta potential, particle size and amino acid content. The MTT assay indicated that SS from all extraction methods had no toxicity to mouse fibroblast cells at concentrations up to 40 μg/mL after 24 h incubation, but SS obtained from some extraction methods can be toxic at higher concentrations. Heat-degraded SS was the least toxic to cells and activated the highest collagen production, while urea-extracted SS showed the lowest cell viability and collagen production. SS from urea extraction was severely harmful to cells at concentrations higher than 100 μg/mL. SS from all extraction methods could still promote collagen production in a concentration-dependent manner, even at high concentrations that are toxic to cells.
Highlights
Extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen, fibronectin, and gelatin are known to play important roles in the attachment and growth of mammalian cells
We recently showed that silk sericin (SS), a high molecular weight granular protein with adhesive and gelatin-like characteristics, can promote growth of the mouse fibroblast cell line L929, as well as activation of collagen production both in vitro and in vivo [1,2]
The L929 mouse fibroblast cell line has been used as a model to investigate the roles of SS from various extraction methods on cell viability and collagen production
Summary
Extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen, fibronectin, and gelatin are known to play important roles in the attachment and growth of mammalian cells. Many studies have demonstrated that SS can accelerate the proliferation and attachment of several mammalian cell lines [3,4,5], and insect cell culture was reported to be improved by SS [6]. Reported that culture supplemented with 1.0% SS resulted in no viable cells, which indicates that the presence of 1.0% SS is harmful to cells [3]. These data demonstrate that the concentration of SS supplemented to culture medium is a significant factor for cell viability. The optimal concentration of SS for promoting cell viability has never been reported
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
