Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics Research Group

Papers in Scientific Journals

Highly elastomeric photocurable silk hydrogels

Abstract

A photocurable silk fibroin hydrogel is prepared, for the first time, using natural silk protein fibroin and biophotosensitizer riboflavin. Riboflavin is excited by ultraviolet light to generate a triplet state which is transferred to produce active oxygen radicals with singlet oxygen as the main component. Active oxygen radicals can induce chemical cross-linking of amino-, phenol- and other groups in the silk fibroin macromolecules to form a photocurable hydrogel. The different biophysical characterizations of the gelation of this modified fibroin protein solution were studied by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, microplate reader and texture analyzer. The aggregate structures, surface morphologies, mechanical properties, light transmission and degradation properties of the gel were studied. The investigations showed that the silk fibroin/riboflavin hydrogels predominantly have random coils or alpha helix structures. These gels show resilience up to 90% after 80% compression and a light transmission of up to 97%. The cell culture experiment exhibits that the hydrogel has a satisfactory cytocompatibility.

Journal
International Journal Of Biological Macromolecules
Volume
134
Pagination
838–845
Publisher
Elsevier
ISSN
0141-8130
URL
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141813019310712
Keywords
biophysical characterization, cell culture, Photocurable hydrogel, Riboflavin, Silk Fibroin
Rights
Restricted Access
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Status
published
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