Structure–Function Relationship of Artificial Spider Silk Fibers Produced by Straining Flow Spinning

Gonska, Nathalie; López, Patricia; Lozano-Picazo, Paloma; Thorpe, Michael D.; Guinea, Gustavo V.; Johansson, Jan; Barth, Andreas; Pérez‐Rigueiro, José; Rising, Anna

doi:10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00100

Cited by 37 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In addition, microfluidic spinning has also been applied to successfully fabricate silk hydrogel, micro-fabricated silk films, engineered tubuliform spidroin fiber, silk fibroin-chitosan scaffolds, recombinant spider silk, and CNF-based fibers. [37][38][39][40][41][42][43] These studies further confirmed the important role of the biomimetic spinning channel to regulate the condensed structure of RSF, which is critical to obtain artificial fibers with excellent mechanical properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Lü

Fan

Geng

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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The outstanding performance of silk, especially in terms of mechanical properties, can be attributed to the sophisticated silk gland and specialized spinning method that exists in nature. In addition, the gland, with decreasing diameter, has been proven to be an outstanding actuator of the sophisticated spinning system. [5,9] It has been qualitatively demonstrated that a region of contracting geometry of the S-shaped duct of silk gland can induce stretching of protein molecules, phase separation, and self-assembly due to shear and elongation flow. [10][11][12][13][14][15] During the subsequent spinning process in air, the protein ultimately aggregates into fibers with spectacular and distinctive properties. However, the mechanisms within the glands with exponential decaying diameter and their ability to dynamically change the conformation of the proteins is yet to be elucidated. [6] At present, various biomimetic spinning methods have been used to fabricate high-performance artificial silk and reveal the relationship between the spinning channel and silk performance. For example, the microfluidic device with miniaturized channels of designed configurations can easily control the physicochemical microenvironment, while using trace amounts of reagents. [6,10,[16][17][18][19][20] The sophisticated, compact, and highly functional microfluidic devices have been widely used to understand the geometry confinements, control overflow, and synthesis of artificially regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) fibers. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] For example, Rammensee et al. prepared assembled spider dragline silk fibers through a microfluidic device. [31] Kinahan et al. adopted the same method to fabricate functional fibers with expected properties by controlling flow conditions. [32] Based on these studies, Zhang's group designed microfluidic chips mimicking the first-order and second-order exponential decay function of silk glands and prepared high-performance artificial silk fibers. [24][25][26]33,34] In our previous work, [35,36] statistics of spider's major ampullate (MA) gland of Nephila edulis were extracted from the work of Knight et al., [12] and then a microfluidic chip was prepared which fitted well to the second-order exponential decay function. The bioinspired chip possessed excellent similarity with the MA gland of spider, and was used to prepare RSF/cellulose nanofibers (CNF) hybrid fibers. However, there were some differences between the size of our microfluidic chip and the ampullate gland of spider. First, the actual diameter of lumen in the MA gland of N. edulis is from ≈250 to 8 µm. [12] However, high concentration of RSF/CNF suspensions (30 wt%) cannot flow through Microfluidic spinning has been used to mimic and discover the natural spinning process of silk. However, it is still challenging to understand the orientation and alignment of silk-spinning through microfluidic chips. Here, flow analysis is performed for a bioinspired microfluidic chip mimicking the shape of a spider's major ampullate gland a...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Lü

Fan

Geng

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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“…This meant that if the fibers actually were not circular (but elliptical or dumbbell-shaped) we overestimated the fiber cross-sectional area by a factor of two, and thereby correspondingly underestimated the fiber tensile stress ( Figure S2). Artificial silk fibers with dumbbell-shaped cross-sections have also been observed in NT2RepCT spinning setups which, instead of the pulled glass capillary, employed fluorinated ethylenepropylene tubes with round cross-sections [32], as well as other spinning setups and recombinant spidroins [45]. Notably, in these studies the cross-sectional area was also assumed to be circular when calculating tensile strength.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Spiders are able to keep the spidroins soluble during storage in the glands at an impressive concentration of 30-50% (w/v) [29], and they convert the protein solution into solid fibers using a drop in pH to <5.7 and shear forces [30]. Recently, this high solubility has been achieved for designed recombinant spidroins that were purified from E. coli and kept, in an aqueous buffer, at pH 8.0 [31,32]. Moreover, these recombinant spidroins have been spun into continuous fibers in biomimetic spinning setups where the fibers were formed by extrusion of a highly concentrated protein solution into a collection bath (pH 5.0 aqueous buffer) [31][32][33] (Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, this high solubility has been achieved for designed recombinant spidroins that were purified from E. coli and kept, in an aqueous buffer, at pH 8.0 [31,32]. Moreover, these recombinant spidroins have been spun into continuous fibers in biomimetic spinning setups where the fibers were formed by extrusion of a highly concentrated protein solution into a collection bath (pH 5.0 aqueous buffer) [31][32][33] (Figure 1). Unfortunately, the artificially spun fibers produced in this way do not match the native fibers in terms of mechanical properties and they are sensitive to wet environments [31][32][33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Properties of Biomimetic Artificial Spider Silk Fibers Tuned by PostSpin Bath Incubation

et al. 2020

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Efficient production of artificial spider silk fibers with properties that match its natural counterpart has still not been achieved. Recently, a biomimetic process for spinning recombinant spider silk proteins (spidroins) was presented, in which important molecular mechanisms involved in native spider silk spinning were recapitulated. However, drawbacks of these fibers included inferior mechanical properties and problems with low resistance to aqueous environments. In this work, we show that ≥5 h incubation of the fibers, in a collection bath of 500 mM NaAc and 200 mM NaCl, at pH 5 results in fibers that do not dissolve in water or phosphate buffered saline, which implies that the fibers can be used for applications that involve wet/humid conditions. Furthermore, incubation in the collection bath improved the strain at break and was associated with increased β-sheet content, but did not affect the fiber morphology. In summary, we present a simple way to improve artificial spider silk fiber strain at break and resistance to aqueous solvents.

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“…Production of recombinant silk proteins by cloning the gene expressing the silk fibroin in a host organism [49][50][51]. This approach can be a good answer to provide enough silk biomaterial with tailored properties for clinical usage.…”

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confidence: 99%

Silk Fibroin: An Ancient Material for Repairing the Injured Nervous System

et al. 2021

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Silk refers to a family of natural fibers spun by several species of invertebrates such as spiders and silkworms. In particular, silkworm silk, the silk spun by Bombyx mori larvae, has been primarily used in the textile industry and in clinical settings as a main component of sutures for tissue repairing and wound ligation. The biocompatibility, remarkable mechanical performance, controllable degradation, and the possibility of producing silk-based materials in several formats, have laid the basic principles that have triggered and extended the use of this material in regenerative medicine. The field of neural soft tissue engineering is not an exception, as it has taken advantage of the properties of silk to promote neuronal growth and nerve guidance. In addition, silk has notable intrinsic properties and the by-products derived from its degradation show anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Finally, this material can be employed for the controlled release of factors and drugs, as well as for the encapsulation and implantation of exogenous stem and progenitor cells with therapeutic capacity. In this article, we review the state of the art on manufacturing methodologies and properties of fiber-based and non-fiber-based formats, as well as the application of silk-based biomaterials to neuroprotect and regenerate the damaged nervous system. We review previous studies that strategically have used silk to enhance therapeutics dealing with highly prevalent central and peripheral disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and peripheral trauma. Finally, we discuss previous research focused on the modification of this biomaterial, through biofunctionalization techniques and/or the creation of novel composite formulations, that aim to transform silk, beyond its natural performance, into more efficient silk-based-polymers towards the clinical arena of neuroprotection and regeneration in nervous system diseases.

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Structure–Function Relationship of Artificial Spider Silk Fibers Produced by Straining Flow Spinning

Cited by 37 publications

References 44 publications

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Properties of Biomimetic Artificial Spider Silk Fibers Tuned by PostSpin Bath Incubation

Silk Fibroin: An Ancient Material for Repairing the Injured Nervous System

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