Comparison of the in vitro and in vivo degradations of silk fibroin scaffolds from mulberry and nonmulberry silkworms.

Degradation behavior is very important in the field of silk-based biomaterials. Mulberry and nonmulberry silk fibroins are structurally and functionally distinguishable; however, no studies have examined the differences in the degradation behaviors of silk materials from various silkworm species. In this study, Ca(NO3)2 was used as a uniform solvent to obtain regenerated mulberry and nonmulberry (Antheraea pernyi and Antheraea yamamai) silk fibroin (SF) solutions, and the degradation behaviors of various SF scaffolds were examined. In vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that regenerated mulberry SF scaffolds exhibited significantly higher mass loss and free amino acid content release than did nonmulberry SF scaffolds. The differences in the primary structures and condensed structures between mulberry and nonmulberry SF contributed to the significant difference in degradation rates, in which the characteristic (-Ala-)n repeats, compact crystal structure and high α-helix and β-sheet contents make nonmulberry SF more resistant than mulberry SF to enzymatic degradation. Moreover, the Antheraea pernyi and Antheraea yamamai SFs possess similar primary structures and condensed structures, although a slight difference in degradation was observed; this difference might depend on the differences in molecular weight following the regeneration process. The results indicate that the original sources of SF significantly influence the degradation rates of SF-based materials; therefore, the original sources of SF should be fully considered for preparing tissue engineering scaffolds with matched degradation rates.