Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK.
Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7HQ, UK.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Feb 2;22(3):1499. doi: 10.3390/ijms22031499.
Tissue engineering (TE) is the approach to combine cells with scaffold materials and appropriate growth factors to regenerate or replace damaged or degenerated tissue or organs. The scaffold material as a template for tissue formation plays the most important role in TE. Among scaffold materials, silk fibroin (SF), a natural protein with outstanding mechanical properties, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and bioresorbability has attracted significant attention for TE applications. SF is commonly dissolved into an aqueous solution and can be easily reconstructed into different material formats, including films, mats, hydrogels, and sponges via various fabrication techniques. These include spin coating, electrospinning, freeze drying, physical, and chemical crosslinking techniques. Furthermore, to facilitate fabrication of more complex SF-based scaffolds with high precision techniques including micro-patterning and bio-printing have recently been explored. This review introduces the physicochemical and mechanical properties of SF and looks into a range of SF-based scaffolds that have been recently developed. The typical TE applications of SF-based scaffolds including bone, cartilage, ligament, tendon, skin, wound healing, and tympanic membrane, will be highlighted and discussed, followed by future prospects and challenges needing to be addressed.
组织工程（TE）是一种将细胞与支架材料和适当的生长因子结合起来，以再生或替代受损或退化的组织或器官的方法。支架材料作为组织形成的模板在 TE 中起着最重要的作用。在支架材料中，丝素蛋白（SF）是一种具有优异机械性能、可生物降解性、生物相容性和生物可吸收性的天然蛋白质，已引起 TE 应用的广泛关注。SF 通常溶解在水溶液中，并可通过各种制造技术轻松重构为不同的材料形式，包括薄膜、垫、水凝胶和海绵。这些技术包括旋涂、静电纺丝、冷冻干燥、物理和化学交联技术。此外，为了便于制造更复杂的 SF 基支架，最近已经探索了包括微图案化和生物打印在内的高精度技术。本综述介绍了 SF 的物理化学和机械性能，并研究了最近开发的一系列基于 SF 的支架。突出并讨论了基于 SF 的支架的典型 TE 应用，包括骨骼、软骨、韧带、肌腱、皮肤、伤口愈合和鼓膜，然后探讨了未来需要解决的前景和挑战。
