Fabrication of Fibroin Microspheres and Hollow Spheres

초록

Fibroin is a biopolymer available in large quantity from silk fiber and has a long history of use as a suture proving biocompatibility. In this report, fibroin microspheres has been fabricated for biomaterial applications. W/O emulsion of regenerated fibroin droplets in a continuous phase of decane with mixed surfactants was dried to facilitate fibroin gelation and the condensed fibroin microspheres were harvested. The ratio of mixed surfactants and their proportions to decane were determined to prepare a stable W/O emulsion. A spherical form of fibroin gels was obtained from the W/O emulsion agitated at 600 rpm. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that number average sizes of the fibroin microspheres were 21.6 and 8.51,mu m when dried under ambient conditions or under vacuum, respectively. Tomography of the spheres revealed that their internal structures are packed or hollowed. Hollow and hemispherical forms of microspheres were also prepared by using porogen.

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