Cited by 654Silk-based biomaterials and applicationsSilkworms and Sericulture Researchbiodegradable polymer synthesis and properties

Water-insoluble silk films with silk I structure

Open access
Lu, Qiang, Hu, Xiao, Wang, Xiaoqin, Kluge, Jonathan A., Lu, Shenzhou, Cebe, Peggy, Kaplan, David L.·2010·Acta Biomaterialia

Abstract

Water-insoluble regenerated silk materials are normally produced by increasing the beta-sheet content (silk II). In the present study water-insoluble silk films were prepared by controlling the very slow drying of Bombyx mori silk solutions, resulting in the formation of stable films with a predominant silk I instead of silk II structure. Wide angle X-ray scattering indicated that the silk films stabilized by slow drying were mainly composed of silk I rather than silk II, while water- and methanol-annealed silk films had a higher silk II content. The silk films prepared by slow drying had a globule-like structure at the core surrounded by nano-filaments. The core region was composed of silk I and silk II, surrounded by hydrophilic nano-filaments containing random turns and alpha-helix secondary structures. The insoluble silk films prepared by slow drying had unique thermal, mechanical and degradative properties. Differential scanning calorimetry results revealed that silk I crystals had stable thermal properties up to 250 degrees C, without crystallization above the T(g), but degraded at lower temperatures than silk II structure. Compared with water- and methanol-annealed films the films prepared by slow drying had better mechanical ductility and were more rapidly enzymatically degraded, reflecting the differences in secondary structure achieved via differences in post processing of the cast silk films. Importantly, the silk I structure, a key intermediate secondary structure for the formation of mechanically robust natural silk fibers, was successfully generated by the present approach of very slow drying, mimicking the natural process. The results also point to a new mode of generating new types of silk biomaterials with enhanced mechanical properties and increased degradation rates, while maintaining water insolubility, along with a low beta-sheet content.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.actbio.2009.10.041

Cites

31 of 31 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • An exothermic transition in SFMA centered at ~224.0 °C is associated with thermally induced structural reorganization and secondary β-sheet formation within the fibroin matrix.

    “Importantly, an exothermic transition centered at ~ 224.0 °C was detected and is associated with thermally induced structural reorganization and secondary β-sheet formation within the fibroin matrix, as described by Freddi et al., 1999 andLu et al., 2010 [49,50].”

    From Montmorillonite-reinforced methacrylated collagen/methacrylated silk fibroin hydrogel-based inks: rheological and physicochemical characterization for bone scaffold applications (2026) · cites this paper as [50]

    Section 3.2 (Thermal stability; page not provided) links a crystallization peak in soluble silk fibroin films at about 213 °C to conversion of non-crystalline structures into β-sheets. This supports the proposed interpretation of a thermal transition, but the paper does not report an SFMA transition centered at about 224 °C. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Lu, Q., Hu, X., Wang, X., Kluge, J. A., Lu, S., Cebe, P., & Kaplan, D. L.
Affiliations
Tufts University (US)
Corresponding author
Kaplan, David L.
Venue
Acta Biomaterialia
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2010-04
Volume
6
Issue
4
Pages
1380-1387
ISSN
1742-7061 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2017686654
Cited by
654
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 32 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 71 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 56 · 2017: 49 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 28
FWCI
7.61
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Acta Biomaterialia (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Eye Institute (R01EY020856)
  • National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (R01EB003210, P41EB002520)
  • National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R01DE017207)
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Silk-based biomaterials and applications
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Silkworms and Sericulture Research
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties
Keywords
Bombyx mori silk, slow drying, β-sheet content, thermal stability, mechanical properties, enzymatic degradation, silk biomaterials
MeSH terms
Calorimetry, Differential Scanning, Pronase, Scattering, Radiation, Solubility, Temperature, Thermogravimetry, Time Factors, Water, X-Ray Diffraction, Protein Structure, Secondary, Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared, Silk, Mechanical Phenomena

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review