Silk Hydrogel for Tissue Engineering: A Review

Abstract

Aim: This review aims to explore the importance of silk hydrogel and its potential in tissue engineering (TE).

Background: Tissue engineering is a procedure that incorporates cells into the scaffold materials with suitable growth factors to regenerate injured tissue. For tissue formation in TE, the scaffold material plays a key role. Different forms of silk fibroin (SF), such as films, mats, hydrogels, and sponges, can be easily manufactured when SF is disintegrated into an aqueous solution. High precision procedures such as micropatterning and bioprinting of SF-based scaffolds have been used for enhanced fabrication.

Review results: In this narrative review, SF physicochemical and mechanical properties have been presented. We have also discussed SF fabrication techniques like electrospinning, spin coating, freeze-drying, and physiochemical cross-linking. The application of SF-based scaffolds for skeletal, tissue, joint, muscle, epidermal, tissue repair, and tympanic membrane regeneration has also been addressed.

Conclusion: SF has excellent mechanical properties, tunability, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and bioresorbability.

Clinical significance: Silk hydrogels are an ideal scaffold matrix material that will significantly impact tissue engineering applications, given the rapid scientific advancements in this field.

Keywords: Biomaterial; Scaffolds; Silk fibroin Tissue engineering..