There are two microtubule systems in the posterior silk gland cells. One is a radial microtubule system in which the microtubules run radially from the basal to the apical cytoplasm and in which fibroin globules (secretory granules of fibroin) and mitochondria are arranged along these microtubules, thus composing a "canal system" which is assumed to be responsible for the intracellular transpor...

Decisions on the conservation and display of a textile, including prioritisation for treatment, should be informed by objective knowledge of its current physical state. Measuring the tenacity and elasticity of yarns and fabric, however, generally requires sampling and is necessarily destructive. Bearing in mind the need to maintain the integrity of the artifact, an indirect approach requiring a...

Electrospinning for the formation of nanoscale diameter fibers has been explored for high-performance filters and biomaterial scaffolds for vascular grafts or wound dressings. Fibers with nanoscale diameters provide benefits due to high surface area. In the present study we explore electrospinning for protein-based biomaterials to fabricate scaffolds and membranes from regenerated silkworm silk...

Silk fibroin is a potent alternative to other biodegradable biopolymers for bone tissue engineering (TE), because of its tunable architecture and mechanical properties, and its demonstrated ability to support bone formation both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we investigated a range of silk scaffolds for bone TE using human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs), an attractive cell source for...

Removing sericin from the periphery of silk without damage to fibroin (SF) obtain high-molecular-weight SF is a major challenge in field SF-based biomaterials. In this study, four neutral proteases, subtilisin, trypsin, bromelain and papain, were used degum silk, degumming efficiency proteases their influence on molecular weight (MW) regenerated studied. The results indicated that all could rem...

Silk is a natural polymer with broad utility in biomedical applications because it exhibits general biocompatibility and high tensile material properties. While mechanical integrity is important for most biomaterial applications, proper function and integration also requires biomaterial incorporation into complex surrounding tissues for many physiologically relevant processes such as wound heal...

Silk is a functional protein biomaterial produced by variety of insects like flies, silkworms, scorpions, spiders, and mites. synthesized silkworms extensively studied for its applications in tissue engineering wound healing. undoubtedly natural biocompatible material with humans has role medical treatments from ancient times. The silk worm comprises two types proteins namely fibroin sericin. m...

Here we present a set of measurements using Differential Scanning Fluorimetry (DSF) as an inexpensive, high throughput screening method to investigate the folding of silk protein molecules as they abandon their first native melt conformation, dehydrate and denature into their final solid filament conformation. Our first data and analyses comparing silks from spiders, mulberry and wild silkworms...

Silk's outstanding mechanical properties and energy efficient solidification mechanisms provide inspiration for biomaterial self-assembly as well as offering a diverse platform of materials suitable for many biotechnology applications. Experiments now reveal that the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori secretes its silk in a practically "unspun" state that retains much of the solvent water and exhibi...

The swelling of microgels is used to concentrate the surrounding solution and regenerate silk fibroin in situ. obtained materials are self-reinforced composite granular hydrogels with high stability, strength toughness.