Spider dragline silk is a natural fiber that has excellent tensile properties; however, it is difficult to produce artificially as a long, strong fiber. Here, the spider (Araneus ventricosus) dragline protein gene was cloned and a transgenic silkworm was generated, that expressed the fusion protein of the fibroin heavy chain and spider dragline protein in cocoon silk. The spider silk protein co...

key words: Silk, fibroin, accelerated ageing, condition, yellowness index, molecular weight, sorbed moisture To ensure continued access and long-term preservation it is essential to understand the condition of an artefact, and the behaviour of its component materials, in order to set limits on display and handling. In support of curators and conservators of collections with historic textiles, w...

Strongly alkaline electrolyzed water (SAEW) was prepared by electrolysis of tap water in a laboratory-made water electrolyzer. The pH of stored SAEW was stable for more than one month. The hardness of the electrolyzed water was 30% lower and the Na(+) concentration was 18% higher than those of the tap water. Silkworm cocoon shells were boiled in pH 11.50 SAEW at a ratio of 1∶40∼80 (W/V) for 20 ...

Physical guidance cues have been exploited to stimulate neuron adhesion and neurite outgrowth. In the present study, three-dimensional (3-D) silk fibroin scaffolds with uniaxial multichannels (42-142 μm in diameter) were prepared by a directional temperature field freezing technique, followed by lyophilization. By varying the initial silk fibroin concentration, the chemical potential and quanti...

The benefits of using silk fibroin, a major protein in silk, are widely established in many biomedical applications including tissue regeneration, bioactive coating and in vitro tissue models. The properties of silk such as biocompatibility and controlled degradation are utilized in this study to formulate for the first time as carriers for pulmonary drug delivery. Silk fibroin particles are sp...

Previous investigations of the basic amino acids yielded by human hair and by wool (1, 2) showed that the keratins of these closely allied tissues yield relatively high proportions of arginine but very low proportions of hi&line; both tissues also yield high proportions of cystine. Because of this the determination of the basic amino acids presented special analytical difficulties that necessit...

Previous investigations of the basic amino acids yielded by human hair and by wool (1, 2) showed that the keratins of these closely allied tissues yield relatively high proportions of arginine but very low proportions of hi&line; both tissues also yield high proportions of cystine. Because of this the determination of the basic amino acids presented special analytical difficulties that necessit...

Fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy were used to monitor the conformational transition of regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin (RSF) in aqueous solutions under different conditions. According to the analysis of fluorescence spectra using anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonic acid magnesium salt (ANS) as an external probe, the destruction of the hydrophobic core prior to the secondary struc...

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are the key enzymes for protein synthesis. Glycine, alanine, serine and tyrosine are the major amino acids composing fibroin of silkworm. Among them, the genes of alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AlaRS) and glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GlyRS) have been cloned. In this study, the seryl-tRNA synthetase (SerRS) and tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (TyrRS) genes from silkworm were cloned. Their...

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are cytokines with strong ability to promote new bone formation. Herein, we report the use of silk fibroin microparticles as carriers for the delivery of BMP-2, BMP-9 or BMP-14. BMP-containing fibroin microparticles were prepared by a mild methodology using dropwise addition of ethanol, exhibiting mean diameters of 2.7 +/- 0.3 microm. Encapsulation efficiencie...