Influence of different surface modification treatments on silk biotextiles for tissue engineering applications

Abstract

Biotextile structures from silk fibroin have demonstrated to be particularly interesting for tissue engineering (TE) applications due to their high mechanical strength, interconnectivity, porosity, and ability to degrade under physiological conditions. In this work, we described several surface treatments of knitted silk fibroin (SF) scaffolds, namely sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, ultraviolet radiation exposure in an ozone atmosphere (UV/O3) and oxygen (O2) plasma treatment followed by acrylic acid (AAc), vinyl phosphonic acid (VPA), and vinyl sulfonic acid (VSA) immersion. The effect of these treatments on the mechanical properties of the textile constructs was evaluated by tensile tests in dry and hydrated states. Surface properties such as morphology, topography, wettability and elemental composition were also affected by the applied treatments. The in vitro biological behavior of L929 fibroblasts revealed that cells were able to adhere and spread both on the untreated and surface-modified textile constructs. The applied treatments had different effects on the scaffolds' surface properties, confirming that these modifications can be considered as useful techniques to modulate the surface of biomaterials according to the targeted application.

Silk-based anisotropical 3D biotextiles for bone regeneration

“…These results correlate well with the SEM (Figure 1) and micro-CT (Table 2) observations, where the SF-PET scaffolds presented lower porosity and mean pore size at the surface that might induce a higher stiffness of the structures in the hydrated state. The interaction of silk with water and its effect on the mechanical properties is well-known as reported previously by us [14,15], and correlates well with the present study. The viscoelastic nature of both SF-PET and PET spacer scaffolds was also confirmed by the loss factor results (ranging from 0.2-0.3 and 0.15-0.2, respectively), which means that the proposed scaffolds will be able to respond and recover from high physical loads before failing or breaking [46].…”

“…For example, Kellomäki et al, [35] developed composite plates of weft-knitted PLA meshes attached on the surface of PLA films, showing that the composite structures were able to guide new bone formation and the mechanical properties of the composites were dependent on the mesh component. In previous studies by our group [14,15,36], standard weft-knitted SF and polybutylene succinate (PBS) scaffolds were proposed as a platform for the functional engineering of bone, showing that the knitting textile substrates exhibit better extensibility or compliance as compared to other textile structures, including the 3D woven structures previously proposed by Moutos et al [9] as a possible strategy for cartilage TE applications. This technology has been applied for TE strategies that seek to restore the biomechanical functions of damaged musculoskeletal tissues [9,37,38], particularly difficult to mimic in terms of biomechanical properties, as they are continualy subjected to complex loading patterns that require tissue arquitectures with preferably aligned fibre structures, as those present on knitting structures.…”

“…complex shapes using rapid manufacturing processes. Moreover, they can be successfully adjusted to the use of several types of fibre materials, present controlled internal porosity, enhanced flexibility and high resistance to deformation, which makes this technique particularly desired for TE applications [14][15][16]. The resulting structural similarities to the anisotropic architecture of flat bone, makes the 3D knitted spacer fabrics a possible solution for craniofacial bone scaffolding strategies.…”

A paper-based in vitro model for on-chip investigation of the human respiratory system

“…This method has been widely studied with different cells on various materials such as silk and polymers [22][23][24] . Therefore, as the first step, the surface properties of the films were characterized before and after laser treatment (at 10 W power with a scanning speed of 35 mm/s).…”

Development of a High-Throughput Ultrasound Technique for the Analysis of Tissue Engineering Constructs

“…Scaffolds are designed to mimic native tissue while providing chemical and mechanical support for cells 20, 32 and can be used for both hard and soft tissue, including bone, cartilage, and wound healing applications 17, 35, 45 . An effective scaffold promotes the intended cellular response, such as proliferation, migration, or differentiation 19 .…”