Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore.
Adv Mater. 2012 Mar 15;24(11):1388-97. doi: 10.1002/adma.201104118. Epub 2012 Feb 3.
Silkworm silk is among the most widely used natural fibers for textile and biomedical applications due to its extraordinary mechanical properties and superior biocompatibility. A number of physical and chemical processes have also been developed to reconstruct silk into various forms or to artificially produce silk-like materials. In addition to the direct use and the delicate replication of silk's natural structure and properties, there is a growing interest to introduce more new functionalities into silk while maintaining its advantageous intrinsic properties. In this review we assess various methods and their merits to produce functional silk, specifically those with color and luminescence, through post-processing steps as well as biological approaches. There is a highlight on intrinsically colored and luminescent silk produced directly from silkworms for a wide range of applications, and a discussion on the suitable molecular properties for being incorporated effectively into silk while it is being produced in the silk gland. With these understanding, a new generation of silk containing various functional materials (e.g., drugs, antibiotics and stimuli-sensitive dyes) would be produced for novel applications such as cancer therapy with controlled release feature, wound dressing with monitoring/sensing feature, tissue engineering scaffolds with antibacterial, anticoagulant or anti-inflammatory feature, and many others.
蚕丝是最广泛应用于纺织和生物医学领域的天然纤维之一，因为它具有非凡的机械性能和卓越的生物相容性。已经开发了许多物理和化学过程来将丝重构为各种形式或人工生产类似丝的材料。除了直接使用和对丝的天然结构和特性的精细复制之外，人们越来越有兴趣在保持其有利内在特性的同时，向丝中引入更多的新功能。在这篇综述中，我们评估了通过后处理步骤以及生物方法来生产具有颜色和发光功能的功能性丝的各种方法及其优点。重点介绍了直接从蚕中生产的具有固有颜色和发光的丝，适用于广泛的应用，讨论了适合在丝腺中生产丝时有效地掺入丝中的分子特性。通过这种理解，可以生产出含有各种功能材料（例如药物、抗生素和刺激敏感染料）的新一代丝，用于新的应用，例如具有控制释放功能的癌症治疗、具有监测/传感功能的伤口敷料、具有抗菌、抗凝血或抗炎功能的组织工程支架等。
