title: Gelation Behaviors and Mechanism of Silk Fibroin According to the Addition of Nitrate Salts.
abstract: Silk fibroin (SF) is a typical fibrous protein that is secreted by silkworms and spiders. It has been used in a variety of areas, and especially for tissue-engineering scaffolds, due to its sound processability, mechanical properties, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. With respect to gelation, the SF gelation time is long in aqueous solutions, so a novel approach is needed to shorten this time. The solubility of regenerated SF is sound in formic acid (FA), which is a carboxylic acid of the simplest structure. In this study, SF was dissolved in formic acid, and the addition of salts then induced a rapid gelation that accompanied a solution-color change. Based on the gelation behaviors of the SF solution according to different SF and salt concentrations, the gelation mechanism was investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Organic Materials and Textile System Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea. lds7477@naver.com.
authors.forename: Dong Su
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Im
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Organic Materials and Textile System Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea. vvvkmhvvv@nate.com.
authors.forename: Min Hee
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Organic Materials and Textile System Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea. yyipmk@cnu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Young Il
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Organic Materials and Textile System Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea. parkwh@cnu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Won Ho
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000378:metabolism*; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D005561:Formates / Q000737:chemistry; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry*; D009566:Nitrates / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D005561:Formates; D005782:Gels; D009566:Nitrates; C030544:formic acid; D005349:Fibroins
keywords: gelation; nitration; silk fibroin; tyrosine