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Recombinant Spider Silk Forms Tough and Elastic Nanomembranes that are Protein‐Permeable and Support Cell Attachment and Growth
Author(s) -
Gustafsson Linnea,
Tasiopoulos Christos Panagiotis,
Jansson Ronnie,
Kvick Mathias,
Duursma Thijs,
Gasser Thomas Christian,
Wijngaart Wouter,
Hedhammar My
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.202002982
Subject(s) - materials science , spider silk , membrane , tissue engineering , toughness , nanotechnology , silk , cell encapsulation , monolayer , drug delivery , biomedical engineering , composite material , self healing hydrogels , polymer chemistry , chemistry , medicine , biochemistry
Biologically compatible membranes are of high interest for several biological and medical applications. Tissue engineering, for example, would greatly benefit from ultrathin, yet easy‐to‐handle, biodegradable membranes that are permeable to proteins and support cell growth. In this work, nanomembranes are formed by self‐assembly of a recombinant spider silk protein into a nanofibrillar network at the interface of a standing aqueous solution. The membranes are cm‐sized, free‐standing, bioactive and as thin as 250 nm. Despite their nanoscale thickness, the membranes feature an ultimate engineering strain of over 220% and a toughness of 5.2 MPa. Moreover, they are permeable to human blood plasma proteins and promote cell adherence and proliferation. Human keratinocytes seeded on either side of the membrane form a confluent monolayer within three days. The significance of these results lays in the unique combination of nanoscale thickness, elasticity, toughness, biodegradability, protein permeability and support for cell growth, as this may enable new applications in tissue engineering including bi‐layered in vitro tissue models and support for clinical transplantation of coherent cell layers.