title: Silk porous scaffolds with nanofibrous microstructures and tunable properties.
abstract: Scaffold biomaterials derived from silk fibroin have been widely used in tissue engineering. However, mimicking the nanofibrous structures of the extracellular matrix (ECM) for achieving better biocompatibility remains a challenge. Here, we design a mild self-assembly approach to prepare nanofibrous scaffolds from silk fibroin solution. Silk nanofibers were self-assembled by slowly concentrating process in aqueous solution without any cross-linker or toxic solvent and then were further fabricated into porous scaffolds with pore size of about 200-250μm through lyophilization, mimicking nano and micro structures of ECM. Gradient water/methanol annealing treatments were used to control the secondary structures, mechanical properties, and degradation behaviors of the scaffolds, which would be critical for different tissue regeneration applications. With salt-leached silk scaffold as control, the ECM-mimetic scaffolds with different secondary structures were used to culture the amniotic fluid-derived stem cells in vitro to confirm their biocompatibility. All the ECM-mimetic scaffolds with different secondary structures represented better cell growth and proliferation compared to the salt-leached scaffold, confirming the critical influence of ECM-mimetic structure on biocompatibility. Although further studies such as cell differentiation behaviours are still necessary for clarifying the influence of microstructures and secondary conformational compositions, our study provides promising scaffold candidate that is suitable for different tissue regenerations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Wuxi 214041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guozhong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China; Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Stem Cell Research, Medical College, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: Lvqiang78@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000166:cytology; D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx; D002152:Calorimetry, Differential Scanning; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D019245:Compressive Strength; D006801:Humans; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016062:Porosity; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D047011:Silk
keywords: Biomaterials; ECM-mimetic; Scaffolds; Silk; Tissue regeneration