Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics Research Group

Papers in Scientific Journals

Core-shell silk hydrogels with spatially tuned conformations as drug-delivery system

Abstract

Hydrogels of spatially controlled physicochemical properties are appealing platforms for tissue engineering and drug delivery. In this study, core-shell silk fibroin (SF) hydrogels of spatially controlled conformation were developed. The core-shell structure in the hydrogels was formed by means of soaking the preformed (enzymatically crosslinked) random coil SF hydrogels in methanol. When increasing the methanol treatment time from 1 to 10 minutes, the thickness of the shell layer can be tuned from about 200 to around 850 µm as measured in wet status. After lyophilization of the rehydrated core-shell hydrogels, the shell layer displayed compact morphology and the core layer presented porous structure, when observed by scanning electron microscopy. The conformation of the hydrogels was evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in wet status. The results revealed that the shell layer possessed dominant β-sheet conformation and the core layer maintained mainly random coil conformation. Enzymatic degradation data showed that the shell layers presented superior stability to the core layer. The mechanical analysis displayed that the compressive modulus of the core-shell hydrogels ranged from around 25 kPa to about 1.1 MPa by increasing the immersion time in methanol. When incorporated with albumin, the core-shell SF hydrogels demonstrated slower and more controllable release profiles compared with the non-treated hydrogel. These core-shell SF hydrogels of highly tuned properties are useful systems as drug delivery system and may be applied as cartilage substitute.

Journal
Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Volume
11
Issue
11
Pagination
3168-3177
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISSN
1932-7005
URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/term.2226
Keywords
beta-sheet, core-shell hydrogel, Drug delivery, random coil, Silk Fibroin, spatially controlled conformation, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Rights
Open Access
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Status
published
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