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An Emerging Functional Natural Silk Biomaterial from the only Domesticated Non‐mulberry Silkworm Samia ricini
Author(s) -
Pal Shilpa,
Kundu Joydip,
Talukdar Sarmistha,
Thomas Tintu,
Kundu Subhas C.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.201300013
Subject(s) - fibroin , biomaterial , silk , polymer science , chemistry , bombyx mori , materials science , biochemistry , composite material , organic chemistry , gene
Mulberry silk fibroin is a widely used biomaterial and recent work on non‐mulberry silk fibroin also suggests it may have similar uses. We expect silk fibroin from the only domesticated non‐mulberry eri silkworm, Samia ricini , to possess useful properties as a biomaterial. Eri silk gland fibroin is a heterodimeric protein of approximately 450 kDa. Cytocompatibility evaluation with fibroblasts and osteoblast‐like cells shows good cell attachment, viability and proliferation. The matrices, which have high thermal stability and good swellability, are also haemocompatible. Eri silk production is cost effective as no agronomic practices are required for their host plant cultivation. This fibroin provide new opportunities as an alternative natural functional biomaterial in various biomedical applications.