title: Silk fibroin film from golden-yellow Bombyx mori is a biocomposite that contains lutein and promotes axonal growth of primary neurons.
abstract: The use of doped silk fibroin (SF) films and substrates from Bombyx mori cocoons for green nanotechnology and biomedical applications has been recently highlighted. Cocoons from coloured strains of B. mori, such as Golden-Yellow, contain high levels of pigments that could have a huge potential for the fabrication of SF based biomaterials targeted to photonics, optoelectronics and neuroregenerative medicine. However, the features of extracted and regenerated SF from cocoons of B. mori Golden-Yellow strain have never been reported. Here we provide a chemophysical characterization of regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) fibers, solution, and films obtained from cocoons of a Golden-Yellow strain of B. mori, by SEM, (1) H-NMR, HPLC, FT-IR, Raman and UV-Vis spectroscopy. We found that the extracted solution and films from B. mori Golden-Yellow fibroin displayed typical Raman spectroscopic and optical features of carotenoids. HPLC-analyses revealed that lutein was the carotenoid contained in the fiber and RSF biopolymer from yellow cocoons. Notably, primary neurons cultured on yellow SF displayed a threefold higher neurite length than those grown of white SF films. The results we report pave the way to expand the potential use of yellow SF in the field of neuroregenerative medicine and provide green chemistry approaches in biomedicine.
authors.affiliation: Institute of the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISOF), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.|Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Assunta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pistone
authors.affiliation: Institute of the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISOF), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.|Laboratory MIST E-R, via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sagnella
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IBIMET), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Camilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chieco
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IBIMET), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianpaolo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bertazza
authors.affiliation: Institute of the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISOF), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Greta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Varchi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Formaggio
authors.affiliation: Institute of the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISOF), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Posati
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saracino
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.|Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, via S. Donato 19/2, University of Bologna, Bologna, 40127, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Caprini
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonetti
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toffanin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IBIMET), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Di Virgilio
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muccini
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IBIMET), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanostructured Materials, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISMN), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Giampiero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ruani
authors.affiliation: Institute of the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISOF), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zamboni
authors.affiliation: Institute of the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISOF), via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Benfenati
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D012831:Bombyx; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry*; D014975:Lutein / Q000737:chemistry*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D047011:Silk; D005349:Fibroins; D014975:Lutein
keywords: biomaterials; carotenoids; lutein; neuroregeneration; silk fibroin