Silk Fibroin Nano-Coated Textured Silk Yarn by Electrospinning Method for Tendon and Ligament Scaffold Application

Abstract

In recent years, the use of combined nanofibers with textile structures for various applications such as tissue engineering has been highly regarded. Among the different methods, electrospinning mechanism is more important to produce polymeric nanofibers in extensive diameters that has been used to fabricate silk fibroin nanofibers in this research. On the basis of the statistical analysis and analytic hierarchy process optimization method, the optimum electrospinning parameters to produce good morphology of nanofibers and the best conditions of texturing process to fabricate suitable structure of textured silk yarn have been obtained, respectively. The following step to produce nanocoated textured yarn was defined as a nanocoating process on the surface of textured silk yarn. Finally, the morphological and mechanical properties of these samples including no-textured silk yarn, textured silk yarn and nanocoated textured silk yarn analyzed and compared. Based on the finding of this study, the nanocoated textured silk yarn was found to be a promising construct for engineered scaffolds in tendon and ligament tissue engineering.