Animal silks: their structures, properties and artificial production

Fu, Chengjie; Shao, Zhengzhong; Vollrath, Fritz

doi:10.1039/b911049f

Cited by 241 publications

(283 citation statements)

References 149 publications

(233 reference statements)

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“…A combination of high tensile strength and extensibility make them mechanically superior to synthetic materials such as Kevlar and nylon 1 . This, along with their excellent bioresponse properties in vivo, makes them highly sought after for industrial and biomedical applications [2][3][4][5] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Wet-Spinning and Post-Spin Stretching Methods Amenable to Recombinant Spider Aciniform Silk

Weatherbee-Martin¹,

Xu²,

Hupe

et al. 2016

Biomacromolecules

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Spider silks are outstanding biomaterials with mechanical properties that outperform synthetic materials. Of the six fibrillar spider silks, aciniform (or wrapping) silk is the toughest through a unique combination of strength and extensibility. In this study, a wet-spinning method for recombinant Argiope trifasciata aciniform spidroin (AcSp1) is introduced. Recombinant AcSp1 comprising three 200 amino acid repeat units was solubilized in a 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP)/water mixture, forming a viscous α-helix-enriched spinning dope, and wet-spun into an ethanol/water coagulation bath allowing continuous fiber production. Post-spin stretching of the resulting wet-spun fibers in water significantly improved fiber strength, enriched β-sheet conformation without complete α-helix depletion, and enhanced birefringence. These methods allow reproducible aciniform silk fiber formation, albeit with lower extensibility than native silk, requiring conditions and methods distinct from those previously reported for other silk proteins. This provides an essential starting point for tailoring wet-spinning of aciniform silk to achieve desired properties. Graphical Abstract*

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Wet-Spinning and Post-Spin Stretching Methods Amenable to Recombinant Spider Aciniform Silk

Weatherbee-Martin¹,

Xu²,

Hupe

et al. 2016

Biomacromolecules

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“…Due to the high crystallinity and strong cohesive bonding nature of silk proteins, the solubilization of silk fibers requires highly denaturing conditions such as concentrated chaotropic aqueous solutions or specific, often fluorinated, organic solvents. 198,199 This requirement may also hold true to solubilize recombinant proteins that often are recovered in the form of strongly bonded and compact precipate powder. In the case of denaturing aqueous solutions, the salt has to be removed using dialysis or elution through saltexchange desalting columns.…”

Section: Wet Spinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the attempts to produce regenerated fibers have been carried out with B. mori fibroin, in particular using concentrated inorganic or organic salt solutions, 198,199 213,214 and requires long dialysis times, which represents an economic limitation, while organic solvents should be avoided for wealth, environmental and/or economic reasons. In addition, it may further be hypothesized that using the natural aqueous environment might be the best way to reproduce the natural spinning process and obtain materials comparable to native silk.…”

Section: Wet Spinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spider silk as a blueprint for greener materials: a review

Lefèvre

Auger

2016

International Materials Reviews

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Spider silk exhibits remarkable properties, especially its well-known tensile performances. They rely on a complex nanostructured hierarchical organization that researches progressively elucidate. Spider silk encompasses a vast range of fibers that exhibit diverse and captivating physical and biological characteristics. The full understanding of the relation between structure and properties may lead in the future to the design of a variety of high-performance, tailored materials and devices. Reknown for being produced in mild and begnin conditions, this outstanding biological material constitutes one the more representative example of biomimetism. In addition, silk's structure is produced with limited means, i.e. low energy and relatively simple renewable constituents (silk proteins). Then, if successfully controlled and adequately transposed in biomaterials, some properties of natural silk could lead to innovative green materials that may contribute to reduce the ecological footprint of societies. In fact, striking recent advanced applications made with B. mori silk suggest that spider silk-based materials may lead to advanced resistant and functional materials, then becoming among the most promising subject of study in material science. However, several challenges have to be overcome, especially our ability to produce native-like silk, to control biomaterials' structure and properties, and to minimize their ecological footprint. This paper reviews the characteristics of spider silk that make it so attractive and that may (or may not) contribute to reduce ecological footprint of materials and the challenges in producing innovative spider silk-based materials. First, from a biomimetic perspective, the structure and models that explain the tensile resistance of natural silk are presented, followed by the state of knowledge regarding natural silk spinning process and synthetic production methods. Biocompatibility (biosafety and biofunctionality) as well as biodegradability issues are then addressed. Finally, examples of applications are reviewed. Features that may lead to the design of green materials are emphasized throughout.

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“…However, the post-treated RSF-SSp coaxial fiber (Figure 1e) showed a very inspiring initial modulus level of 18 GPa, which is twice higher than that of the post-treated RSF-SSp blend fiber and could rival the stiffness of a forcibly reeled silk and even a spider dragline silk according to some relevant data reported. [2,14] The high modulus probably resulted from the stiff SSp shell around RSF core( Figure 5). The above results indicate that the fabrication of high-performance silks can be realized through a bio-inspired artificial spinning and a proper post-treatment.…”

Section: Structure Control Of Artificial Silk By Biomimickingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial Silk Materials with Enhanced Mechanical Properties and Controllable Structures

Zhang

Pan

Luo

et al. 2014

Int.J.Soc.Mater.Eng.Resour.

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Spider and silkworm produce animal silks exhibiting outstanding mechanical properties by using smart spinning method. In this paper, a biomimetic spinning of spider silk and silkworm silk was studied from various routes. Regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) aqueous solution was firstly dry-spun to artificial fiber in air at room temperature as the animal silks were made naturally. The conformation transition of the silk fibroin was then induced by post-drawing in ethanol aqueous solution. The oriented crystalline and amorphous regions of the silk fibers contribute to the remarkable mechanical properties of the artificial silk, which exceed those of natural silkworm silk. By mimicking the functions of the spinning apparatus of spider and silkworm, ion and protein concentrations in the RSF aqueous solution were adjusted in microfluidic chips with multiple channels. Inspired by the shape and dimensions of the natural spinning apparatus, a microfluidic chip was designed and applied to the studies of aggregation mechanism of silk fibroin in micro-channel. Moreover, the supermolecular structures of silk fibroin were effectively controlled to reinforce dry-spun/electrospun fibers of RSF by mimicking the core-shell structure of natural animal silks, adding silk sericin or carbon nanotube in spinning solutions and changing the collecting method in electrospinning process.

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Animal silks: their structures, properties and artificial production

Cited by 241 publications

References 149 publications

Identification of Wet-Spinning and Post-Spin Stretching Methods Amenable to Recombinant Spider Aciniform Silk

Identification of Wet-Spinning and Post-Spin Stretching Methods Amenable to Recombinant Spider Aciniform Silk

Spider silk as a blueprint for greener materials: a review

Artificial Silk Materials with Enhanced Mechanical Properties and Controllable Structures

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