Silk Fibroin Scaffolds Facilitating the Repair of Rat Abdominal Wall Defect
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abstract
2016 American Scientific Publishers. Silkworm silk fibroin (SF) has been recently explored as a new biomaterial in tissue engineering. Purified SF protein can be molded into various scaffolds with desirable porous structure and mechanical strength to support the attachment and growth of cells and tissues. Here we evaluated the application of a SF scaffold prepared by a freeze-thaw method in the repair of abdominal hernia in rats. This porous SF scaffold was able to support the attachment and proliferation of fibroblasts both in vitro and in vivo. Using a rat model of abdominal wall defect, we observed a growing layer of tissue containing fibroblast cells and collagen on the surface and certain internal region of the grafted SF patches. The accumulation of cells and collagen increased over the time after the implantation, resulting in the increase of the mechanical strength of the grafted patches and the joints between the patch and surrounding tissues. Although inflammatory cells were observable by histological examination, all patches and surrounding tissues remained intact without noticeable medical complications. These observations indicated that the porous SF scaffolds might be further explored as an alternative to the synthetic materials in hernia repair to overcome common complications associated with synthetic materials.
