Spidroin-Based Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering: General Approaches and Potential Stem Cell Therapies

Figure 5

Using different techniques for patterning materials of recombinant spider silk proteins. (a) AFM images showing the morphology of C16 films from HFIP: (A) surface morphology with a scales of 10 nm, (B) square pattern with a scale of 60 nm, (C) line pattern using the SAMIM technique with a scale of 60 nm, and (D) representation of the SAMIM technique. Reproduced from S. L. Young et al., 2012, Copyright © 2012, American Chemical Society. (b) (A) Schematic representation of soft lithography-based patterning for localized fibril self-assembly. The silicon surface was activated by the epoxy group, enabling the simultaneous introduction of the capture 5-amino oligonucleotides (cap-NH₂) and passivation agents (i). A microcontact printing technique (ii) was used to pattern DNA-spider silk conjugates (link-eADF4(C16)) (iii). The surfaces were treated with phosphate ions and monomeric spider silk protein eADF4(C16) to nucleate (iv) which led to the growth of surface bound β-sheet rich fibrils on the spotted conjugates. (B) Schematic diagram of surface microstructure formed by self-assembly of spidroin molecular chains. Reproduced from A. Molina et al., 2019, Copyright © 2018, American Chemical Society.

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