Silk–Its Mysteries, How It Is Made, and How It Is Used

Ebrahimi, Davoud; Tokareva, Olena; Rim, Nae Gyune; Wong, Joyce Y.; Kaplan, David L.; Buehler, Markus J.

doi:10.1021/acsbiomaterials.5b00152

Cited by 88 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 178 publications

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“…These properties are attributed to a hierarchical arrangement of ordered and disordered protein structures within a single fiber (Vollrath and Porter, 2009;Vollrath et al, 2011;Porter et al, 2013). This nanostructure has been extensively explored by bulk and space-averaging techniques such as calorimetry (Cebe et al, 2013;Vollrath et al, 2014;Holland et al, 2018a), spectroscopy (Dicko et al, 2007;Boulet-Audet et al, 2015) small angle scattering X-ray and neutron diffraction (Termonia, 1994;Riekel et al, 2000;Greving et al, 2010;Wagner et al, 2017) and solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) (Willis et al, 1972;Hijirida et al, 1996;Kümmerlen et al, 1996;Yang et al, 2000;Holland et al, 2008;McGill et al, 2018), which together have provided the fuel for a range of modeling approaches (Giesa et al, 2011;Cranford, 2013;Ebrahimi et al, 2015;Rim et al, 2017). In comparison, spatially resolved techniques are yet to be fully explored, but have already hinted at a diverse set of rich nano-and microscale features such as micelles (Lin et al, 2017;Oktaviani et al, 2018;Parent et al, 2018), nanofibrils (Wang and Schniepp, 2018), elongated cavities (Frische et al, 2002), and an overall radial variation of composition and structure (Li et al, 1994;Knight et al, 2000;Frische et al, 2002;Sponner et al, 2007;Brown et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing Spider Silk's 3D Nanostructure Through Low Temperature Plasma Etching and Advanced Low-Voltage SEM

et al. 2019

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The excellent mechanical properties of spider dragline silk are closely linked to its multiscale hierarchical structuring which develops as it is spun. If this is to be understood and mimicked, multiscale models must emerge which effectively bridge the length scales. This study aims to contribute to this goal by exposing structures within Nephila dragline silk using low-temperature plasma etching and advanced Low Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy (LV-SEM). It is shown that Secondary Electron Hyperspectral Imaging (SEHI) is sensitive to compositional differences on both the micro and nano scale. On larger scales it can distinguish the lipids outermost layer from the protein core, while at smaller scales SEHI is effective in better resolving nanostructures present in the matrix. Key results suggest that the silks spun at lower reeling speeds tend to have a greater proportion of smaller nanostructures in closer proximity to one-another in the fiber, which we associate with the fiber's higher toughness but lower stiffness. The bimodal size distribution of ordered domains, their radial distribution, nanoscale spacings, and crucially their interactions may be key in bridging the length scale gaps which remain in current spider silk structure-property models. Ultimately this will allow successful biomimetic implementation of new models.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing Spider Silk's 3D Nanostructure Through Low Temperature Plasma Etching and Advanced Low-Voltage SEM

et al. 2019

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“…Silkworm silk has been used commercially in textile production for centuries and it is one of the most fascinating natural biopolymers with excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability . Over the past 60 years, researchers from a wide range of fields including chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering have made considerable progress to understand the structure, properties, and applications of silkworm silks .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Study of Strain‐Dependent Structural Changes of Silkworm Silks: Insight into the Structural Origin of Strain‐Stiffening

Guo

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2017

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Structure–property relationships of silk is an intriguing topic for silk‐based biomaterials research since these features are related to biomimicking the processing in natural silk fiber formation which results in excellent mechanical properties. Strain‐stiffening is common for spider silks and nonmulberry silkworm silks. However, the structural origin of strain‐stiffening remains unclear. In this paper, the strain‐dependent structural change of Antheraea pernyi silkworm silk is studied by X‐ray fiber diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy under stretching. Based on a combination of mechanical and structural analysis, the molecular origins of strain‐stiffening in A. pernyi silk were determined. The relatively high content of the β‐sheets within the amorphous domains in A. pernyi silk is responsible for strain‐stiffening, where “molecular spindles” enhance the extensibility and toughness of the fiber.

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“…As such, improved insight into key features of these biomaterials that modulate the biological outcomes would be useful . Silk fibroin is useful as biomaterial due to its biocompatibility and outstanding mechanical and physical properties, as well as due to the potential for fine‐tuning properties through bioengineered sequence modification to incorporate diverse functional domains . Organic–inorganic biomaterial systems, such as silk–silica materials, provide suitable systems for the study of tissue regeneration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intracellular Pathways Involved in Bone Regeneration Triggered by Recombinant Silk–Silica Chimeras

Martín‐Moldes

Ebrahimi

Plowright

et al. 2017

Adv Funct Materials

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Biomineralization at the organic-inorganic interface is critical to many biology material functions and. Recombinant silk-silica fusion peptides are organic-inorganic hybrid material systems that can be effectively used to study and control biologically-mediated mineralization due to the genetic basis of sequence control. However, to date, the mechanisms by which these functionalized silk-silica proteins trigger the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) to osteoblasts remain unknown. To address this challenge, we analyzed silk-silica surfaces for silica-hMSC receptor binding and activation, and the intracellular pathways involved in the induction of osteogenesis on these bioengineered biomaterials. The induction of gene expression of αVβ3 integrin, all three Mitogen-activated Protein Kinsases (MAPKs) as well as c-Jun, Runt-related Transcription Factor 2 (Runx2) and osteoblast marker genes was demonstrated upon growth of the hMSCs on the silk-silica materials. This induction of key markers of osteogenesis correlated with the content of silica on the materials. Moreover, computational simulations were performed for silk/silica-integrin binding which showed activation of αVβ3 integrin in contact with silica. This integrated computational and experimental approach provides insight into interactions that regulate osteogenesis towards more efficient biomaterial designs.

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Silk–Its Mysteries, How It Is Made, and How It Is Used

Cited by 88 publications

References 178 publications

Revealing Spider Silk's 3D Nanostructure Through Low Temperature Plasma Etching and Advanced Low-Voltage SEM

Revealing Spider Silk's 3D Nanostructure Through Low Temperature Plasma Etching and Advanced Low-Voltage SEM

Comparative Study of Strain‐Dependent Structural Changes of Silkworm Silks: Insight into the Structural Origin of Strain‐Stiffening

Intracellular Pathways Involved in Bone Regeneration Triggered by Recombinant Silk–Silica Chimeras

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