Novel magnetic silk fibroin scaffolds with delayed degradation for potential long-distance vascular repair

Abstract

Although with the good biological properties, silk fibroin (SF) is immensely restrained in long-distance vascular defect repair due to its relatively fast degradation and inferior mechanical properties. It is necessary to construct a multifunctional composite scaffold based on SF. In this study, a novel magnetic SF scaffold (MSFCs) was prepared by an improved infiltration method. Compared with SF scaffold (SFC), MSFCs were found to have better crystallinity, magnetocaloric properties, and mechanical strength, which was ascribed to the rational introduction of iron-based magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Moreover, in vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrated that the degradation of MSFCs was significantly extended. The mechanism of delayed degradation was correlated with the dual effect that was the newly formed hydrogen bonds between SFC and MNPs and the complexing to tyrosine (Try) to inhibit hydrolase by internal iron atoms. Besides, the β-crystallization of protein in MSFCs was increased with the rise of iron concentration, proving the beneficial effect after MNPS doped. Furthermore, although macrophages could phagocytose the released MNPs, it did not affect their function, and even a reasonable level might cause some cytokines to be upregulated. Finally, in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that MSFCs showed excellent biocompatibility and the growth promotion effect on CD34-labeled vascular endothelial cells (VECs). In conclusion, we confirm that the doping of MNPs can significantly reduce the degradation of SFC and thus provide an innovative perspective of multifunctional biocomposites for tissue engineering.

Micro/Nanosystems for Magnetic Targeted Delivery of Bioagents

“…Even in the absence of magnetic fields, doping the scaffolds with MNPs can alter their activity as a drug delivery system. For instance, the addition of MNPs reduced the degradation of silk fibroin scaffolds that have been proposed as multifunctional composite for tissue engineering [239]. In particular, the degradation rate of these sponges was strongly affected by the presence of the MNPs and correlated with the availability of active sites for proteases' binding.…”

Application of Microfluidics in Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells

“…Due to the high surface area volume ratio, compatible capture and release ability, nanomaterials provide a high collision probability for antibodies and CTCs ( Park et al, 2017 ; Wu C. et al, 2019 ; Shi et al, 2022 ; Yi et al, 2022 ; Liu et al, 2022 ; Liu J. et al, 2021 ), which can help improve the sensitivity and specificity of capture, and have attracted extensive attention in the separation of CTCs ( Wongkaew et al, 2018 ; Wu and Qu, 2015 ; Zhu G. et al, 2021 ; Naskar et al, 2020 ; Chandankere et al, 2020 ). So far, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) ( Cho H. et al, 2018 ; Zhang P. et al, 2019 ; Poudineh et al, 2017 ), graphene oxide (GO) ( Chen et al, 2012 ; Yoon et al, 2013 ; Yu X. et al, 2013 ; Yoon et al, 2016 ), gold nanoparticles (AuNP) ( Park et al, 2017 ), nanocolumns ( Lin et al, 2014 ; Shi et al, 2022 ) and TiO 2 nanofibers ( Zhang et al, 2012 ) have been widely used in affinity group capture methods ( Zhao et al, 2016 ; Cai et al, 2017 ; Wongkaew et al, 2018 ).…”

Vascular Repair by Grafting Based on Magnetic Nanoparticles

“…Given the above-mentioned unsatisfactory factors and the shortcomings of secondary operations caused by non-degradability, it has always been a goal to seek natural materials with better biocompatibility to construct vascular grafts. Unfortunately, the many properties of natural materials cannot meet the application requirements of vascular grafts, such as mechanical strength [ 85 ], elasticity [ 16 ], and degradation [ 86 , 87 ]. MNPs are believed to effectively improve the performance of vascular grafts and provide more applications in other areas (such as MRI [ 43 ] or nano-modification [ 88 ]).…”

“…Vascular repair mainly includes three stages: inflammation, neointimal hyperplasia, and vascular remodeling, in which dysfunction at any stage will affect the vascular repair [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Due to their unique magnetic responsiveness [ 13 , 14 ], magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are considered an effective non-invasive technical means to assist in various stages of vascular repair and have achieved good results in both diagnosis and treatment [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. For example, MNPs are used as magnetic resonance contrast agents to evaluate and monitor the fate and function of grafts with non-invasive imaging methods [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]; MNPs-labeled vascular endothelial cells (VECs) can be driven to seed at designated sites to accelerate endothelialization [ 16 ]; MNPs are used as a targeted anticoagulant drug carrier reduces thrombus formation [ 21 , 22 ], etc.…”