Yu Meng, Wang Zhiming, Huang Renyan, Luo Zuwei, You Renchuan, Huang Ying, Yan Shuqin, Zhang Qiang
State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.
State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Sep 16;280(Pt 1):135686. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.135686.
Hydrogels are widely used due to their exceptional biocompatibility and adaptability, but their weak mechanical properties limit their application in biomedical engineering. Herein, we rapidly attained a comprehensive enhancement of silk fibroin hydrogels in mechanical properties by employing a physical-chemical double crosslinking strategy. The SF was ultrasonicated and simultaneously photo-crosslinked to form a di-tyrosine network interspersed with β-sheet blocks, resulting in a SF hydrogel network structure with both rigid and flexible domains. The SF hydrogels exhibited a maximum breaking strength of 59.7 kPa and a Young's modulus of 82.2 MPa, demonstrating significant rigidity and flexibility. Subsequently, the silk screws prepared by this double crosslinking strategy showed extraordinary compressive strength and Young's modulus of 41.8 MPa and 10.9 MPa, respectively. The silk screws cocultured with osteoblasts showed optimal biocompatibility, and the rate of biodegradation could be matched to the rate of osteogenesis. The screw also exhibited high adaptability in the requirements of bone screws. In this study, the SF hydrogels prepared by physical-chemical double crosslinking have extraordinary mechanical properties and biocompatibility, which provides a new avenue for the preparation of high-performance hydrogels and has great potential in bone tissue engineering.
水凝胶因其优异的生物相容性和适应性而被广泛应用，但其较弱的机械性能限制了它们在生物医学工程中的应用。在此，我们通过采用物理化学双重交联策略，迅速全面地增强了丝素蛋白水凝胶的机械性能。将丝素蛋白进行超声处理并同时进行光交联，以形成穿插有β-折叠块的二酪氨酸网络，从而得到具有刚性和柔性区域的丝素蛋白水凝胶网络结构。丝素蛋白水凝胶表现出59.7 kPa的最大断裂强度和82.2 MPa的杨氏模量，显示出显著的刚性和柔韧性。随后，通过这种双重交联策略制备的丝质螺钉表现出非凡的抗压强度，杨氏模量分别为41.8 MPa和10.9 MPa。与成骨细胞共培养的丝质螺钉表现出最佳的生物相容性，并且生物降解速率可以与成骨速率相匹配。该螺钉在骨螺钉的要求方面也表现出高度的适应性。在本研究中，通过物理化学双重交联制备的丝素蛋白水凝胶具有非凡的机械性能和生物相容性，这为制备高性能水凝胶提供了一条新途径，并且在骨组织工程中具有巨大潜力。
