Search

Poly (vinyl) alcohol (PVA) cryogels are reported in the literature for application in nucleus pulposus (NP) replacement strategies. However, these studies are mainly limited to acellular approaches-in part due to the high hydrophilicity of PVA gels that renders cellular adhesion difficult. Silk is a versatile biomaterial with excellent biocompatibility. We hypothesize that the incorporation of silk with PVA will (i) improve the cell-hosting abilities of PVA cryogels and (ii) allow better tailoring of physical properties of the composite cryogels for an NP tissue engineering purpose. 5% (wt/vol) PVA is blended with 5% silk fibroin (wt/vol) to investigate the effect of silk : PVA ratios on the cryogels' physical properties. Results show that the addition of silk results in composite cryogels that are able to swell to more than 10 times its original dry weight and rehydrate to at least 70% of its original wet weight. Adding at least 20% silk significantly improves surface hydrophobicity and is correlated with an improvement in cell-hosting abilities. Cell-seeded cryogels also display an increment in compressive modulus and hoop stress values. In all, adding silk to PVA creates cryogels that can be potentially used as NP replacements.

In the process of removing sericin (degumming) from a raw silk scaffold, the fibroin structural integrity is often challenged, leading to mechanical depreciation. This study aims to identify the factors and conditions contributing to fibroin degradation during alkaline degumming and to perform an optimization study of the parameters involved to achieve preservation of fibro in structure and properties. The methodology involves degumming knitted silk scaffolds for various durations (5-90 min) and temperatures (60-100 ◦C). Mechanical agitation and use of the refreshed solution during degumming are included to investigate how these factors contribute to degumming efficiency and fibroin preservation. Characterizations of silk fibroin morphology, mechanical properties and protein components are determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), single fiber tensile tests and gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE),respectively. Sericin removal is ascertained via SEM imaging and a protein fractionation method involving SDS–PAGE. The results show that fibroin fibrillation, leading to reduced mechanical integrity, is mainly caused by prolonged degumming duration. Through a series of optimization, knitted scaffolds are observed to be optimally degummed and experience negligible mechanical and structural degradation when subjected to alkaline degumming with mechanical agitation for 30 min at 100 ◦C.