Lyophilized Silk Sponges: A Versatile Biomaterial Platform for Soft Tissue Engineering.

ABSTRACT: We present a silk biomaterial platform with highly tunable mechanical and degradation properties for engineering and regeneration of soft tissues such as, skin, adipose, and neural tissue, with elasticity properties in the kilopascal range. Lyophilized silk sponges were prepared under different process conditions and the effect of silk molecular weight, concentration and crystallinity on 3D scaffold formation, structural integrity, morphology, mechanical and degradation properties, and cell interactions in vitro and in vivo were studied. Tuning the molecular weight distribution (via degumming time) of silk allowed the formation of stable, highly porous, 3D scaffolds that held form with silk concentrations as low as 0.5% wt/v. Mechanical properties were a function of silk concentration and

SUBMITTER: Rnjak-Kovacina J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4426347 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature