Silkworm Gut Fibres from Silk Glands of -Potential Use as a Scaffold in Tissue Engineering.

High-performance fibroin fibres are ideal candidates for the manufacture of scaffolds with applications in tissue engineering due to the excellent mechanical properties and optimal biocompatibility of this protein. In this work, the manufacture of high-strength fibres made from the silk glands of is explored. The glands were subjected to soaking in aqueous dissolutions of acetic acid and stretched to manufacture the fibres. The materials produced were widely characterized, in terms of morphology, mechanical properties, crystallinity and content of secondary structures, comparing them with those produced by the standard procedure published for . In addition, mechanical properties and biocompatibility of a braided scaffold produced from these fibres was evaluated. The results obtained show that the fibres from present a higher degree of crystallinity than those from , which is reflected in higher values of elastic modulus and lower values of strain at break. Moreover, a decrease in the elongation values of the fibres from was observed as the concentration of acetic acid was increased during the manufacture. On the other hand, the study of the braided scaffolds showed higher values of tensile strength and strain at break in the case of materials and similar values of elastic modulus, compared to those of , displaying both scaffolds optimal biocompatibility using a fibroblast cell line.