title: Regenerated silk fibroin nanofibrous matrices treated with 75% ethanol vapor for tissue-engineering applications.
abstract: As an excellent biocompatible and biodegradable protein polymer, silk fibroin (SF) has found wide applications, particularly serving as therapeutic agent for tissue-engineering applications, on which both post-spin treatment and sterilization processing are crucial to drug-loaded matrices.  To find a safe, effective and appropriate post-spin treatment and sterilization approach for drug-loaded biomaterial matrices is one of the major problems in the field of tissue engineering at present. In this work, a simple, safe and effective approach skillfully integrating post-spin treatment  with sterilization processing was developed to drug-loaded SF nanofibrous matrices. Electrospun SF nanofibrous matrices from its aqueous solution were post-treated with 75% ethanol vapor. (13)C-NMR and WAXD analysis demonstrated that such post-spin treatment rendered the structure  of SF nanofibrous matrices transform from the silk I form to the silk II form. Furthermore, biological assays suggested that as-treated SF nanofibrous matrices significantly promoted the development of murine connective tissue fibroblasts. Skillfully integrated with novel sterilization processing,  75% ethanol vapor treatment could be a potential approach to designing and fabricating diverse drug-loaded SF nanofibrous matrices serving as therapeutic agents for tissue-engineering applications in that it can effectively protect the drug from losing compared with traditional post-spin treatment  and sterilization processing.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Textile Science and Technology Ministry of Education, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Linpeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Hongsheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kuihua
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chuanglong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Zengxiao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Xiumei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000633:toxicity; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D013242:Sterilization; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D000431:Ethanol; D005349:Fibroins