Concentrated aqueous silk fibroin solution and use thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9623147-B2
Application number	US-201414293308-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 2, 2014
Priority date	Apr 10, 2003
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

The present invention provides for concentrated aqueous silk fibroin solutions and an all-aqueous mode for preparation of concentrated aqueous fibroin solutions that avoids the use of organic solvents, direct additives, or harsh chemicals. The invention further provides for the use of these solutions in production of materials, e.g., fibers, films, foams, meshes, scaffolds and hydrogels.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for processing a silk film by contacting the silk film with water vapor in the absence of alcohol and forming the silk film from a concentrated aqueous silk solution containing at least 4% silk fibroin but not more than 33% silk fibroin.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the concentrated aqueous solution contains between about 10% and about 30% silk fibroin.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of stretching the film mono-axially or bi-axially.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of contacting the silk film with water vapor comprises placing the silk film under vacuum in the presence of distilled water.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of forming the silk film comprises combining the aqueous silk solution with a biocompatible polymer.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the biocompatible polymer is selected from the group consisting of polyethylene oxide (PEO), polyethylene glycol (PEG), collagen, fibronectin, keratin, polyaspartic acid, polylysine, alginate, clitosan, chitin, hyaluronic acid, pectin, polycaprolactone, polylactic acid, polyglycolic acid, polyhydroxyalkanoates, dextrans, polyanhydrides, and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the film comprises from about 50 to about 99.99 part by volume aqueous silk protein solution and from about 0.01 to about 50 part by volume biocompatible polymer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contacting is performed in the absence of any organic solvent.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the film is from about 60 to about 240 um thick.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the film comprises multiple layers.

Assignees

• Tufts College

Inventors

• Kaplan David L
• Kim Ung-Jin
• Park Jaehyung
• Jin Hyoung-Joon

Classifications

• C08J3/075

  Macromolecular gels · CPC title

• A61L2430/02

  for reconstruction of bones; weight-bearing implants · CPC title

• Y10T442/60

  Nonwoven fabric [i.e., nonwoven strand or fiber material] · CPC title

• C08J3/07

  from polymer solutions · CPC title

• D01D5/0007

  Electro-spinning (non-woven fabrics produced by electro-spinning D04H1/728) · CPC title