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  • Salt‐Assisted Toughening of...
    Jiang, Li‐Bo; Su, Di‐Han; Ding, Sheng‐Long; Zhang, Qi‐Chen; Li, Ze‐Fang; Chen, Fan‐Cheng; Ding, Wang; Zhang, Shu‐Tian; Dong, Jian

    Advanced functional materials, 06/2019, Volume: 29, Issue: 26
    Journal Article

    Recently, strong polymer‐based hydrogels have been intensively investigated. However, the development of tough protein hydrogels with controlled degradation for bone regeneration has rarely been reported. Here, regenerated silk fibroin/gelatin (RSF/G) hydrogels with both strength and controlled degradation are prepared via physically and chemically double‐crosslinked networks. As a representative example, the 9%RSF/3%G hydrogel shows approximately 80% elongation and a compressive and tensile modulus of up to 0.25 and 0.21 MPa, respectively. It also shows a degradation rate that can be adjusted to approximately three months in vivo, a value between that of the rapidly degrading gelatin hydrogel and the slowly degrading RSF hydrogel. The 9%RSF/3%G hydrogel has good biocompatibility and promotes the proliferation and differentiation of bone marrow–derived stem cells compared with the control and pure RSF hydrogels. At 12 weeks after implantation of the gel in a calvarial defect, micro‐computed tomography shows greater bone volume and bone mineral density in the 9%RSF/3%G group. More importantly, histology reveals more mineralization and enhancements in the quality and rate of bone regeneration with less of a tissue response in the 9%RSF/3%G group. These results indicate the promising potential of this tough protein hydrogel with controlled degradation for bone regeneration applications. A novel facile strategy is developed to fabricate strong and tough hydrogels with controlled degradation by immersing an enzymatically crosslinked regenerated silk fibroin/gelatin (RSF/G) hydrogel in a salt solution, forming a double‐crosslinked network. The resulting 9%RSF/3%G hydrogel shows high strength, good biocompatibility, a suitable degradation rate, and capacity for promoting osteogenic differentiation and bone regeneration.