Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States.
Biomacromolecules. 2020 May 11;21(5):1678-1686. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00090. Epub 2020 Feb 19.
As a biomaterial, silk presents unique features with a combination of excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. The biodegradability aspects of silk biomaterials, especially with options to control the rate from short (days) to long (years) time frames in vivo, make this protein-based biopolymer a good candidate for developing biodegradable devices used for tissue repairs and tissue engineering, as well as medical device implants. Silk materials, including native silk fibers and a broad spectrum of regenerated silk materials, have been investigated in vitro and in vivo to demonstrate degradation by proteolytic enzymes. In this Review, we summarize the findings on these studies on the enzymatic degradation of () silk materials. We also present a discussion on the factors that dictate the degradation properties of silk materials. Finally, in future perspectives, we highlight some key challenges and potential directions toward the future study of the degradation of silk materials.
作为一种生物材料，丝呈现出独特的特性，兼具优异的机械性能、生物相容性和可生物降解性。丝生物材料的可生物降解性方面，特别是具有控制体内降解速率的选择，从短期（几天）到长期（数年），使这种基于蛋白质的生物聚合物成为开发用于组织修复和组织工程以及医疗器械植入物的可生物降解器件的良好候选材料。包括天然丝纤维和广泛的再生丝材料在内的丝材料已经在体外和体内进行了研究，以证明其可被蛋白酶降解。在这篇综述中，我们总结了关于这些丝材料酶降解研究的发现。我们还讨论了决定丝材料降解特性的因素。最后，在未来展望中，我们强调了一些关键挑战和潜在方向，以促进对丝材料降解的未来研究。
