Advances in farming technology and intensification of animal agriculture increase the cost-efficiency and production volume of meat. Thus, in developed nations, meat is relatively inexpensive and ...accessible. While beneficial for consumer satisfaction, intensive meat production inflicts negative externalities on public health, the environment and animal welfare. In response, groups within academia and industry are working to improve the sensory characteristics of plant-based meat and pursuing nascent approaches through cellular agriculture methodology (i.e., cell-based meat). Here we detail the benefits and challenges of plant-based and cell-based meat alternatives with regard to production efficiency, product characteristics and impact categories.
As a biomaterial, silk presents unique features with a combination of excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. The biodegradability aspects of silk biomaterials, ...especially with options to control the rate from short (days) to long (years) time frames in vivo, make this protein-based biopolymer a good candidate for developing biodegradable devices used for tissue repairs and tissue engineering, as well as medical device implants. Silk materials, including native silk fibers and a broad spectrum of regenerated silk materials, have been investigated in vitro and in vivo to demonstrate degradation by proteolytic enzymes. In this Review, we summarize the findings on these studies on the enzymatic degradation of Bombyx mori (B. mori) silk materials. We also present a discussion on the factors that dictate the degradation properties of silk materials. Finally, in future perspectives, we highlight some key challenges and potential directions toward the future study of the degradation of silk materials.
New Opportunities for an Ancient Material Omenetto, Fiorenzo G; Kaplan, David L
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
07/2010, Volume:
329, Issue:
5991
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Spiders and silkworms generate silk protein fibers that embody strength and beauty. Orb webs are fascinating feats of bioengineering in nature, displaying magnificent architectures while providing ...essential survival utility for spiders. The unusual combination of high strength and extensibility is a characteristic unavailable to date in synthetic materials yet is attained in nature with a relatively simple protein processed from water. This biological template suggests new directions to emulate in the pursuit of new high-performance, multifunctional materials generated with a green chemistry and processing approach. These bio-inspired and high-technology materials can lead to multifunctional material platforms that integrate with living systems for medical materials and a host of other applications.
Conspectus Soft bioelectronics that could be integrated with soft and curvilinear biological tissues/organs have attracted multidisciplinary research interest from material scientists, electronic ...engineers, and biomedical scientists. Because of their potential human health-related applications, soft bioelectronics require stringent demands for biocompatible components. Silk, as a kind of well-known ancient natural biopolymer, shows unique combined merits such as good biocompatibility, programmable biodegradability, processability into various material formats, and large-scale sustainable production. Such unique merits have made silk popular for intensive design and study in soft bioelectronics over the past decade. Due to the development of fabrication techniques in material processing and progress in research, silk has been engineered into a variety of advanced materials including silk fibers/textiles, nanofibers, films, hydrogels, and aerogels. Natural and regenerated silk materials can also be transformed into intrinsically nitrogen-doped and electrically conductive carbon materials, due to their unique molecular structure and high nitrogen content. The rich morphologies and varied processing options for silk materials can furnish transformed carbon materials with well-designed structures and properties. The favorable and unique material merits of silk materials and silk-derived carbon materials offer potential applications in soft electronics. Based on commercial silk fibers/textiles and the availability of re-engineered silk materials with versatile technological formats, functional soft electronics have been explored with silk as flexible biosupports/biomatrixes or active components. These soft systems include bioresorbable electronics, ultraconformal bioelectronics, transient electronics, epidermal electronics, textile electronics, conformal biosensors, flexible transistors, and resistive switching memory devices. Silk-derived carbon materials with rationally designed morphologies and structures have also been developed as active components for wearable sensors, electronic skins, and flexible energy devices, which provide novel concepts and opportunities for soft electronics. In this Account, we highlight the unique hierarchical and chemical structure of natural silk fibers, the fabrication strategies for processing silk into materials with versatile morphologies and into electrically conductive carbon materials, as well as recent progress in the development of silk-based advanced materials (silk materials and silk-derived carbon materials) for soft bioelectronics. The design and functionality of soft electronics developed with commercial silk fibers/textiles, re-engineered silk materials, and silk-derived carbon materials as biosubstrate/matrix and active components is introduced in detail. We further discuss future challenges and prospects for developing silk-based soft bioelectronics for wearable healthcare systems. By leveraging the unique advantages of silk-based advanced materials, the design and construction strategy for flexible electronics, as well as the potential of flexible electronics for conformable and intimate association with human tissues/organs, silk-based soft bioelectronics should have a significant impact on diverse healthcare fields.
Overview of Silk Fibroin Use in Wound Dressings Farokhi, Mehdi; Mottaghitalab, Fatemeh; Fatahi, Yousef ...
Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.),
09/2018, Volume:
36, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Recently, biomimetic wound dressings were introduced as potential replacements for treating skin injuries. Although there are some clinically available skin replacements, the range of wound types and ...locations necessitates a broader range of options for the clinic. Natural polymeric-based dressings are of central interest in this area due to their outstanding biocompatibility, biodegradability, low toxicity, and non-allergenic nature. Among them, silk fibroin (SF) has exceptional characteristics as a wound dressing. SF-based dressings can also be used as carriers for delivering drugs, growth factors, and bioactive agents to the wound area, while providing appropriate support for complete healing. In this review, we describe recent advances in the development of SF-based wound dressings for skin regeneration.
The growing field of tissue engineering has introduced remarkable wound dressings based on natural polymers.
The unique properties of SF, such as its biocompatibility, biodegradability, high water and oxygen uptake, low immunogenicity, and robust mechanical properties, make it an exceptional choice for wound healing.
Scaffolds containing different growth factors and signaling molecules are preferable for wound regeneration because they can interact with cells and consequently enhance cell behavior during the healing process.
Despite the successful use of SF in wound dressings, it is not yet approved as an artificial skin.
•Agarose has shown unique characteristics for tissue engineering applications.•Agarose can be an excellent candidate for controlled/localized drug delivery.•Agarose has resemblances to the ...extracellular matrix suitable for tissue engineering.•Agarose tunable properties make it suitable for various medicine-oriented applications.•Agarose exhibits controllable permeation for oxygen and nutrients.•Agarose has a low rejection potential against immune system due to its inert structure.•Agarose is a suitable biomaterial for cell-encapsulation because of high water uptake capability.
Agarose is a natural polysaccharide polymer having unique characteristics that give reason to consider it for tissue engineering applications. Special characteristics of agarose such as its excellent biocompatibility, thermo-reversible gelation behavior and physiochemical features support its use as a biomaterial for cell growth and/or controlled/localized drug delivery. The resemblance of this natural carbohydrate polymer to the extracellular matrix results in attractive features that bring about a strong interest in its usage in the field. The scope of this review is to summarize the extensive researches addressing agarose-based biomaterials in order to provide an in-depth understanding of its tissue engineering-related applications.
Silks are natural fibrous protein polymers that are spun by silkworms and spiders. Among silk variants, there has been increasing interest devoted to the silkworm silk of B. mori, due to its ...availability in large quantities along with its unique material properties. Silk fibroin can be extracted from the cocoons of the B. mori silkworm and combined synergistically with other biomaterials to form biopolymer composites. With the development of recombinant DNA technology, silks can also be rationally designed and synthesized via genetic control. Silk proteins can be processed in aqueous environments into various material formats including films, sponges, electrospun mats and hydrogels. The versatility and sustainability of silk-based materials provides an impressive toolbox for tailoring materials to meet specific applications via eco-friendly approaches. Historically, silkworm silk has been used by the textile industry for thousands of years due to its excellent physical properties, such as lightweight, high mechanical strength, flexibility, and luster. Recently, due to these properties, along with its biocompatibility, biodegradability and non-immunogenicity, silkworm silk has become a candidate for biomedical utility. Further, the FDA has approved silk medical devices for sutures and as a support structure during reconstructive surgery. With increasing needs for implantable and degradable devices, silkworm silk has attracted interest for electronics, photonics for implantable yet degradable medical devices, along with a broader range of utility in different device applications. This Tutorial review summarizes and highlights recent advances in the use of silk-based materials in bio-nanotechnology, with a focus on the fabrication and functionalization methods for in vitro and in vivo applications in the field of tissue engineering, degradable devices and controlled release systems.
Silk fibroin (SF) was enzymatically crosslinked with tyramine-substituted silk fibroin (SF-TA) or gelatin (G-TA) to fabricate hybrid hydrogels with tunable gelation kinetics, mechanical properties ...and bioactivity. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)/hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) mediated crosslinking of SF in physiological buffers results in slow gelation and limited mechanical properties. Moreover, SF lacks cell attachment sequences, leading to poor cell-material interactions. These shortcomings can limit the uses of enzymatically crosslinked silk hydrogels in injectable tissue fillings, 3D bioprinting or cell microencapsulation, where rapid gelation and high bioactivity are desired. Here SF/SF-TA and SF/G-TA composite hydrogels were characterized for hydrogel properties and the influence of conjugated cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide or G-TA content on bioactivity was explored. Both SF-TA and G-TA significantly increased gelation kinetics, improved mechanical properties and delayed enzymatic degradation in a concentration-dependent manner. β-Sheet formation and hydrogel stiffening were accelerated by SF-TA content but delayed by G-TA. Both cyclic RGD and G-TA significantly improved morphology and metabolic activity of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) cultured on or encapsulated in composite hydrogels. The hydrogel formulations introduced in this study provide improved control of gel formation and properties, along with biocompatible systems that can be utilized in tissue engineering and cell delivery applications.
Statement of Significance: HRP-mediated covalent crosslinking of aqueous silk solutions allows for fabrication of highly elastic, mechanically tunable, degradable and biocompatible hydrogels. However, slow gelation and impaired mechanical properties of silk hydrogels enzymatically crosslinked in physiological media as well as the lack of cell-recognition sequences in silk fibroin limit potential cell encapsulation applications. In the present study, crosslinking of regenerated silk with tyramine-substituted silk or gelatin was performed to improve gelation kinetics and mechanical properties of silk hydrogels by increasing the number of phenol groups available for enzymatic crosslinking. Moreover, in situ conjugation of cyclic RGD peptides into silk hydrogels was employed to enhance cell-matrix interactions. Our findings indicate significant improvement of gelation kinetics and modulus, as well as modulation of silk secondary structure and enzymatic degradation of composite hydrogels in addition to enhanced bioactivity provided by cyclic RGD peptides or tyramine-substituted gelatin. Silk hydrogel formulations introduced here hold great promise as injectable cell-laden tissue fillers and as bioinks for cell encapsulation through 3D bioprinting or droplet-based microgel fabrication. Display omitted
Silk presents a rare combination of desirable properties for sustained drug delivery, including aqueous-based purification and processing options without chemical cross-linkers, compatibility with ...common sterilization methods, controllable and surface-mediated biodegradation into non-inflammatory by-products, biocompatibility, utility in drug stabilization, and robust mechanical properties. A versatile silk-based toolkit is currently available for sustained drug delivery formulations of small molecule through macromolecular drugs, with a promise to mitigate several drawbacks associated with other degradable sustained delivery technologies in the market. Silk-based formulations utilize silk's well-defined nano- through microscale structural hierarchy, stimuli-responsive self-assembly pathways and crystal polymorphism, as well as sequence and genetic modification options towards targeted pharmaceutical outcomes. Furthermore, by manipulating the interactions between silk and drug molecules, near-zero order sustained release may be achieved through diffusion- and degradation-based release mechanisms. Because of these desirable properties, there has been increasing industrial interest in silk-based drug delivery systems currently at various stages of the developmental pipeline from pre-clinical to FDA-approved products. Here, we discuss the unique aspects of silk technology as a sustained drug delivery platform and highlight the current state of the art in silk-based drug delivery. We also offer a potential early development pathway for silk-based sustained delivery products.
We present the Census of the Local Universe (CLU) narrowband survey to search for emission-line (H ) galaxies. CLU-H has imaged 3π of the sky (26,470 deg2) with four narrowband filters that probe a ...distance out to 200 Mpc. We have obtained spectroscopic follow-up for galaxy candidates in 14 preliminary fields (101.6 deg2) to characterize the limits and completeness of the survey. In these preliminary fields, CLU can identify emission lines down to an H flux limit of 10−14 erg s−1 cm−2 at 90% completeness, and recovers 83% (67%) of the H flux from cataloged galaxies in our search volume at the = 2.5 ( = 5) color excess levels. The contamination from galaxies with no emission lines is 61% (12%) for = 2.5 ( = 5). Also, in the regions of overlap between our preliminary fields and previous emission-line surveys, we recover the majority of the galaxies found in previous surveys and identify an additional 300 galaxies. In total, we find 90 galaxies with no previous distance information, several of which are interesting objects: 7 blue compact dwarfs, 1 green pea, and a Seyfert galaxy; we also identify a known planetary nebula. These objects show that the CLU-H survey can be a discovery machine for objects in our own Galaxy and extreme galaxies out to intermediate redshifts. However, the majority of the CLU-H galaxies identified in this work show properties consistent with normal star-forming galaxies. CLU-H galaxies with new redshifts will be added to existing galaxy catalogs to focus the search for the electromagnetic counterpart to gravitational wave events.
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