title: Silk scaffolds with tunable mechanical capability for cell differentiation.
abstract: Bombyx mori silk fibroin is a promising biomaterial for tissue regeneration and is usually considered an "inert" material with respect to actively regulating cell differentiation due to few specific cell signaling peptide domains in the primary sequence and the generally stiffer mechanical properties due to crystalline content formed in processing. In the present study, silk fibroin porous 3D scaffolds with nanostructures and tunable stiffness were generated via a silk fibroin nanofiber-assisted lyophilization process. The silk fibroin nanofibers with high β-sheet content were added into the silk fibroin solutions to modulate the self-assembly, and to directly induce water-insoluble scaffold formation after lyophilization. Unlike previously reported silk fibroin scaffold formation processes, these new scaffolds had lower overall β-sheet content and softer mechanical properties for improved cell compatibility. The scaffold stiffness could be further tuned to match soft tissue mechanical properties, which resulted in different differentiation outcomes with rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells toward myogenic and endothelial cells, respectively. Therefore, these silk fibroin scaffolds regulate cell differentiation outcomes due to their mechanical features.
authors: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China; College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors: Shumeng
authors: S
authors: Bai
authors: School of Biology and Basic Medical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors: Hongyan
authors: H
authors: Han
authors: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China; College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xiaowei
authors: X
authors: Huang
authors: School of Biology and Basic Medical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors: Weian
authors: W
authors: Xu
authors: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
authors: David L
authors: DL
authors: Kaplan
authors: Research Center of Materials Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China.
authors: Hesun
authors: H
authors: Zhu
authors: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China; College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: Lvqiang78@suda.edu.cn.
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Lu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000494:pharmacology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000187:drug effects; D012831:Bombyx; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008422:Materials Testing; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*; D017155:Wettability; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D015415:Biomarkers; D047011:Silk; D005349:Fibroins
keywords: Cell differentiation; Nanofibrous scaffolds; Silk fibroin; Tissue engineering