Orientational behaviors of silk fibroin hydrogels |
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| Authors: | Daqi Chen Zhuping Yin Feng Wu Hua Fu Subhas C. Kundu Shenzhou Lu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, China;2. Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India;3. 3Bs Research Group, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, University of Minho, Barco, Guimaraes, Portugal |
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| Abstract: | In this study, a novel shear‐induced silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel with three‐dimensional (3D) anisotropic and oriented gel skeleton/network morphology is presented. Amphipathic anionic and nontoxic sodium surfactin is blended with the SF to decrease its gelation time during the mechanical shearing process. The fibroin/surfactin blended solutions undergo a facial shearing process to accomplish a sol–gel transition within 1 hour. The dynamic sol–gel transition kinetic analysis, gel skeleton/network morphology, and mechanical property measurements are determined in order to visualize the fibroin/surfactin sol–gel transition during the shearing process and its resulting hydrogel. The results demonstrate that there is significant β‐sheet assembly from random coil conformations in the fibroin/surfactin blended system during the facile shearing process. The SF β‐sheets further transform into a fibrous large‐scale aggregation with orientational and parallel arrangements to the shearing direction. The shear‐induced fibroin/surfactin hydrogel exhibits notable anisotropic and oriented 3D skeleton/network morphology and a significant mechanical compressive strength in proportion to the shearing stress, compared with the control fibroin/surfactin hydrogel undergoing no shearing process. Due to its oriented gel skeleton/network structure and significantly enhanced mechanical properties, the shear‐induced fibroin/surfactin gel may be suitable as a biomaterial in 3D oriented tissue regeneration, including for nerves, the cultivation of bone cells, and the repair of defects in muscle and ligament tissues. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45050. |
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| Keywords: | biomaterials gels mechanical properties structure– property relationships |
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