An insight into silk-based biomaterials: From physico-chemical attributes to recent biomedical applications

Silk, a natural biopolymer has been used clinically as suture material over thousands of years and have received much impetus for a plethora of biomedical applications in the last two decades. Silk protein isolated from both mulberry and non-mulberry silkworm varieties gained recognition as a potential biomaterial owing to its affordability and remarkable physicochemical properties. Molecular studies on the amino acid composition and conformation of silk proteins interpreted in the present review provide a critical understanding of the difference in crystallinity, hydrophobicity, and tensile strength among the silkworm silk proteins. Meticulous silk fibroin (SF) isolation procedures and innovative processing techniques to fabricate gamut of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) matrices including the latest 3D printed scaffolds have led SF for diverse biomedical applications. The crucial factors for clinical success of any biomaterial including biocompatibility, immune response, and biodegradabi...