Silk is increasingly being used as a biomaterial for tissue engineering applications, as well as sutures, due to its unique mechanical and chemical properties. Silk Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine discusses the properties of silk that make it useful for medical purposes and its applications in this area.

Part one introduces silk biomaterials, discussing their fundamentals and how they are processed, and considering different types of silk biomaterials. Part two focuses on the properties and behavior of silk biomaterials and the implications of this for their applications in biomedicine. These chapters focus on topics including biodegradation, bio-response to silk sericin, and capillary growth behavior in porous silk films. Finally, part three discusses the applications of silk biomaterials for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and biomedicine, with chapters on the use of silk biomaterials for vertebral, dental, dermal, and cardiac tissue engineering.

Silk Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine is an important resource for materials and tissue engineering scientists, R&D departments in industry and academia, and academics with an interest in the fields of biomaterials and tissue engineering.

• Discusses the properties and applications of silk for medical purposes
• Considers pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical applications

- Contributor contact details
- Woodhead Publishing Series in Biomaterials
- Foreword
- Part I: Fundamentals, processing and types of silk biomaterials
- Chapter 1: Introduction to silk biomaterials
- Abstract:
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 General information about silkworms
- 1.3 Silk proteins
- 1.4 Genetics of silkworms
- 1.5 Diseases of silkworms
- 1.6 Applications of silks
- 1.7 Application of silk protein fibroins
- 1.8 Application of silk protein sericins
- 1.9 Conclusion
- 1.10 Acknowledgments
- Chapter 2: Applications of silk biomaterials in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
- Abstract:
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Silk scaffolds in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
- 2.3 Hard tissue engineering
- 2.4 Soft tissue engineering
- 2.5 Tissue engineering for application in specific organs
- 2.6 Conclusion and future trends
- 2.7 Acknowledgments
- Chapter 3: Processing of Bombyx mori silk for biomedical applications
- Abstract:
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 Modulation of silk biomaterial properties
- 3.3 Silk fibroin materials and their use in biomedical applications
- 3.4 Conclusion and future trends
- Chapter 4: Silk nanostructures based on natural and engineered self-assembly
- Abstract:
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Mechanisms of self-assembly in natural and engineered systems
- 4.3 Assembly of natural and recombinant silk proteins
- 4.4 Engineering the self-assembly of silk
- 4.5 Silk nano-architectures and their applications
- 4.6 Self-assembly in conjugation with other (bio)materials
- 4.7 Conjugation with natural and synthetic materials
- 4.8 Conclusion and future trends
- Chapter 5: Electrospun silk sericin nanofibers for biomedical applications
- Abstract:
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 Application of silk sericin in the biomedical field
- 5.3 Electrospinning
- 5.4 Silk sericin nanofibers from electrospinning
- 5.5 Molecular structure and physical properties
- 5.6 Silk sericin/silk fibroin blend nanofibers by electrospinning
- 5.7 Conclusion and future trends
- Chapter 6: Silk fibroin microfiber and nanofiber scaffolds for tissue engineering and regeneration
- Abstract:
- 6.1 Introduction
- 6.2 Silk fibroin (SF) microfibers for skin and connective tissue regeneration
- 6.3 Formic acid (FA)-cross-linked 3-D SF microfiber-based nonwovens
- 6.4 SF microfiber-based carded-needled 3-D nonwovens
- 6.5 Nanofibers from electrospinning and tissue engineering
- 6.6 Electrospun SF tubes for small calibre blood vessel regeneration
- Chapter 7: Silk powder for regenerative medicine
- Abstract:
- 7.1 Introduction
- 7.2 Silk particle production by the bottom up approach
- 7.3 Silk powder production by the top down approach (milling)
- 7.4 Characterisation of silk powder
- 7.5 Applications of silk particles
- 7.6 Conclusion
- Part II: Properties and behaviour of silk biomaterials
- Chapter 8: Biochemical and biophysical properties of native Bombyx mori silk for tissue engineering applications
- Abstract:
- 8.1 Introduction
- 8.2 Genetic sequence and primary structure of silk proteins
- 8.3 Structure and assembly of native silk fibroin
- 8.4 Physical and chemical properties of native silk fibroin fibers
- 8.5 Conclusion
- Chapter 9: Structure and properties of spider and silkworm silk for tissue scaffolds
- Abstract:
- 9.1 Introduction
- 9.2 Microstructure of silks
- 9.3 Mechanical properties
- 9.4 Relationship between structure and properties
- 9.5 Biomimetic approaches
- 9.6 Conclusion
- 9.7 Acknowledgments
- Chapter 10: Types and properties of non-mulberry silk biomaterials for tissue engineering applications
- Abstract:
- 10.1 Introduction
- 10.2 Classification of silkworms
- 10.3 Life cycle of silkworms
- 10.4 Types of non-mulberry silk
- 10.5 Structure and mechanical properties of silk
- 10.6 Processing of silk proteins
- 10.7 Different formats of silk protein as biomaterials: fibroin
- 10.8 Different formats of silk protein as biomaterials: sericin
- 10.