Volume 141, Issue 8 e54981
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Silk nanofibrous scaffolds assembled by natural polysaccharide konjac glucomannan

Jiahui Xiao

Jiahui Xiao

State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China

Contribution: Data curation (lead), ​Investigation (equal), Methodology (lead)

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Yueyang Ji

Yueyang Ji

State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China

Contribution: ​Investigation (lead)

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Zixin Gao

Zixin Gao

State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead)

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Yunfeng Dai

Yunfeng Dai

State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China

Contribution: ​Investigation (equal)

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Xiufang Li

Corresponding Author

Xiufang Li

State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Intelligent Textile Materials & Application, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China

Correspondence

Xiufang Li, State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Intelligent Textile Materials & Application, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.

Email: [email protected]

Yanfei Feng and Renchuan You, State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Funding acquisition (lead), ​Investigation (equal), Validation (lead)

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Yanfei Feng

Corresponding Author

Yanfei Feng

State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China

Correspondence

Xiufang Li, State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Intelligent Textile Materials & Application, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.

Email: [email protected]

Yanfei Feng and Renchuan You, State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Supervision (lead), Writing - original draft (lead)

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Renchuan You

Corresponding Author

Renchuan You

State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China

Correspondence

Xiufang Li, State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Intelligent Textile Materials & Application, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.

Email: [email protected]

Yanfei Feng and Renchuan You, State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Funding acquisition (lead), Methodology (lead), Supervision (lead)

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First published: 02 December 2023
Citations: 1

Abstract

Natural silk fibroin nanofibers (SNF) have recently attracted great attention in the field of biomaterials due to their excellent biocompatibility, outstanding mechanical properties, and biomimetic nanostructures. However, the poor structural stability of SNF assembly in aqueous conditions remains a major obstacle to their biomedical application. In this work, SNF scaffolds with extracellular matrix-mimicking architecture and tunable properties were developed by using a small amount of konjac glucomannan (KGM) as a physical adhesive. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results revealed that KGM facilitated the formation of hydrogen bond networks between SNF as well as nanofibers/polysaccharide molecules, thereby reinforcing the interconnectivity between SNF. The water stability test showed that SNF scaffolds exhibited good structural stability in water when the mass ratio of KGM/SNF reached 2.5/100. Raising KGM content significantly enhanced the compression strength, modulus, and swelling ratio of the porous scaffold. Whereas, the nanofibrous morphology and porosity of the scaffolds were significantly sacrificed as KGM content exceeded 10% as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results. In vitro, cytocompatibility results also demonstrated the excellent biocompatibility of the biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds, and the high porosity significantly enhanced cell viability. These results suggest that KGM-reinforced SNF scaffolds may serve as promising candidates for biomaterial applications.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

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