Fabrication Of Silk Fibroin Nanofibres By Needleless Electrospinning

Silk fibroin nanofibres were fabricated using a needleless electrospinning technique. The procedure focused on a new method for the preparation of a spinning solution from silk fibroin. The role of the concentration of silk fibroin solution, applied voltage and spinning distance were investigated as a function of the morphology of the obtained fibres and the spinning performance of the electrospinning process. The biocompatibility of the obtained fibre sheets was evaluated using an in vitro testing method with MG-63 osteoblasts. The solvent system consisted of formic acid and calcium chloride that can dissolve silk fibroin at room temperature, and a rate of 0.25 g of calcium chloride per 1 g of silk fibroin was required to obtain a completely dissolved silk fibroin solution. The diameters of the silk electrospun fibres obtained from the formic acid-calcium chloride solvent system ranged from 100 to 2400 nm, depending on the spinning parameters. Furthermore, increasing the concentration of the silk fibroin solution and the applied voltage improved spinning ability and spinning performance in needleless electrospinning. In addition, in vitro tests with living cells showed that the obtained electrospun fibre sheets were highly biocompatible with MG-63 osteoblasts.