Role of Silk Protein in Biomedical Application

Silks are naturally occurring polymers that have been used clinically as sutures for many centuries. When naturally extruded from insects or worms, silk is composed of a filament core protein, termed fibroin and a glue-like coating consisting of sericin proteins. Recently regenerated silk materials have been used to form a variety of biomaterials such as gels, sponges and films for medical applications. Particularly silk fibroin has been increasingly studied for new biomedical applications due to the biocompatibility, slow degradability and remarkable mechanical properties of the material. In addition, the ability to control molecular structure and morphology through versatile processability and surface modification options has expanded the utility for this protein in a range of biomaterial and tissue-engineering applications like bone, ligament andcartilage as well as connective tissues like skin. Currently silk-based biomaterials are commercially available in market such as SERI Surgical Scaffold, Silk surgical mesh, Silk suture, Restylane silk and Silk road embolic protection system. Still there is lot of scope to explore the silk as a biomaterial.