Preparation and characterization of silk fibroin as a biomaterial with potential for drug delivery

Journal of Translational Medicine

Yu-zhang Wu¹  Xia Yang¹  Wei Zhou¹  Bing Ni¹  Hao-hao Zhang¹  Fang-yin Dai³  Ling-ling Li²  Hao Zhang¹ 

[1]Institute of Immunology Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, Peoples Republic of China

[2]Biochemistry engineering department, Chongqing Industry & Trade Polytechnic, Chongqing, 408000, Peoples Republic of China

[3]State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, Peoples Republic of China

关键词: Biomaterial;    Drug delivery;    Crystalline structure;    Calcium-alcohol solutions;    Silk fibroin;   

Others  :  1205964
DOI  :  10.1186/1479-5876-10-117

 received in 2012-01-29, accepted in 2012-05-21,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Degummed silk fibroin from Bombyx mori (silkworm) has potential carrier capabilities for drug delivery in humans; however, the processing methods have yet to be comparatively analyzed to determine the differential effects on the silk protein properties, including crystalline structure and activity.

Methods

In this study, we treated degummed silk with four kinds of calcium-alcohol solutions, and performed secondary structure measurements and enzyme activity test to distinguish the differences between the regenerated fibroins and degummed silk fibroin.

Results

Gel electrophoresis analysis revealed that Ca(NO₃)₂-methanol, Ca(NO₃)₂-ethanol, or CaCl₂-methanol treatments produced more lower molecular weights of silk fibroin than CaCl₂-ethanol. X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy showed that CaCl₂-ethanol produced a crystalline structure with more silk I (α-form, type II β-turn), while the other treatments produced more silk II (β-form, anti-parallel β-pleated sheet). Solid-State ¹³C cross polarization and magic angle spinning-nuclear magnetic resonance measurements suggested that regenerated fibroins from CaCl₂-ethanol were nearly identical to degummed silk fibroin, while the other treatments produced fibroins with significantly different chemical shifts. Finally, enzyme activity test indicated that silk fibroins from CaCl₂-ethanol had higher activity when linked to a known chemotherapeutic drug, L-asparaginase, than the fibroins from other treatments.

Conclusions

Collectively, these results suggest that the CaCl₂-ethanol processing method produces silk fibroin with biomaterial properties that are appropriate for drug delivery.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Zhang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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