Silk fibroin as adjuvant in the fabrication of mechanically stable fibrin biocomposites
Open accessAbstract
Fibrin is a very attractive material for the development of tissue-engineered scaffolds due to its exceptional bioactivity, versatility in the fabrication, affinity to cell mediators; and the possibility to isolate it from blood plasma, making it autologous. However, fibrin application is greatly limited due to its low mechanical properties, fast degradation, and strong contraction in the presence of cells. In this study, we present a new strategy to overcome these drawbacks by combining it with another natural polymer: silk fibroin. Specifically, we fabricated biocomposites of fibrin (5 mg/mL) and silk fibroin (0.1, 0.5 and 1% w/w) by using a dual injection system, followed by ethanol annealing. The shear elastic modulus increased from 23 ± 5 Pa from fibrin alone, to 67 ± 22 Pa for fibrin/silk fibroin 0.1%, 241 ± 67 Pa for fibrin/silk fibroin 0.5% and 456 ± 32 Pa for fibrin/silk fibroin 1%. After culturing for 27 days with strong contractile cells (primary human arterial smooth muscle cells), fibrin/silk fibroin 0.5% and fibrin/silk fibroin 1% featured minimal cell-mediated contraction (ca. 15 and 5% respectively) in contrast with the large surface loss of the pure fibrin scaffolds (ca. 95%). Additionally, the composites enabled the formation of a proper endothelial cell layer after culturing with human primary endothelial cells under standard culture conditions. Overall, the fibrin/silk fibroin composites, manufactured within this study by a simple and scalable biofabrication approach, offer a promising avenue to boost the applicability of fibrin in tissue engineering.
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Antunes, B. S. L., Pedrini, F., Komatsu, D., Asami, J., Dicko, C., & Duek, E. A. R. (2026) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules · doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2026.154129
- Authors
- El Maachi, I., Kyriakou, S., Rütten, S., Kopp, A., Köpf, M., Jockenhoevel, S., & Fernández-Colino, A.
- Affiliations
- Department of Biohybrid & Medical Textiles (BioTex), AME-Institute of Applied Medical Engineering, Helmholtz Institute, RWTH Aachen University, D-52074 Aachen, Germany
- RWTH Aachen University (DE)
- Universitätsklinikum Aachen (DE)
- Fibrothelium GmbH, D-52068 Aachen, Germany
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Jockenhoevel, Stefan
- Venue
- Polymers
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-05-31
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 2251
- ISSN
- 2073-4360 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9183065
- OpenAlex
- W4282027466
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 0.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Polymers (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen)
- Funders
- NanoMatFutur Program of the German Ministry of Education and Research (13XP5136)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Silk-based biomaterials and applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Blood properties and coagulation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
- Keywords
- silk fibroin, fibrin, tissue engineering scaffolds, mechanical reinforcement, shear modulus, arterial smooth muscle cells, natural polymer composites
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