K. Jayakumar

Silk Proteins As a Novel Biomaterial K. Jayakumar

Silk is a natural polymer synthesized and secreted by specialized silk gland of the silk worm. Silk is evolved as an ideal biomaterial can provide functional insight into relationships between polymer science and molecular biology. Silk proteins can be recovered from the silk during the processing chain of textile manufacture. The important characteristic of silk, especially the biocompatibility, non-toxicity and biodegradability, suggest that silks can be used as a biomaterial in medical and therapeutic applications. As a biomaterial, silk has been used widely as a suture material for years. Impressive mechanical properties and flexibility of silk allows alteration in its chemical structure. Now a day the use of synthetic biomaterial for tissue engineering is of great concern due to its safety, toxicity and biocompatibility. Considering the drawbacks of synthetic biomaterials, the use of silk and silk proteins as natural biomaterial could be of great value. The present study was conducted to assess the pharmacological efficacy in terms of wound healing and to evaluate the pre-clinical safety of silk protein based bio-films under the acute dermal irritation, acute dermal toxicity