Characterization of silk hydrogel formed with hydrolyzed silk fibroin-methacrylate via photopolymerization

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel has been highlighted for its unique physical property as well as biocompatibility. SF hydrogel is easily formed from aqueous solution by physical crosslinking via β-sheet structure formation. However, such a physically formed SF hydrogel is mechanically poor with low reproducibility. Alternatively, SF hydrogel formation can be achieved by chemical cross-linking, which is able to precisely control the network density with high reproducibility. Nevertheless, chemical cross-linking process is very restricted for SF since it is very difficult to maintain homogeneous reaction condition in SF solution. To achieve controlled crosslinking, we synthesized SF-methacrylate (SFMA) with hydrolyzed SF and fabricated SF hydrogel via photo-crosslinking in the presence of photoinitiator. SFMA powder synthesized with 25 kDa SF showed good water-solubility at various degrees of methacrylation as well as quick gelation time (<60 s). In addition, the photo-crosslinked SF hydrogel showed a wide property control range with higher elasticity compared to physically crosslinked SF hydrogel.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Synthesis silk fibroin-methacrylate with hydrolyzed silk fibroin. </LI> <LI> Quick and facile silk fibroin-methacrylate hydrogel formation via photopolymerziation. </LI> <LI> Characterization of physical and structural property of silk fibroin-methacrylate hydrogels. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>