Comparison of eri and tasar silk fibroin scaffolds for biomedical applications

The cultivated silk, mulberry, is being used as biomaterial in different forms. Eri, tasar and muga are some of the known wild silk varieties. The studies on biomedical applications of electrospun mats produced from these wild silks are limited though few studies on eri silk are available. In this work, comparison was made between eri and tasar silk fibroin scaffolds for biomedical application. The scaffolds were produced from eri silk fibroin (ESF) and tasar silk fibroin (TSF) by electrospinning method and they were treated with ethanol to improve dimensional stability. Ethanol treatment increased the crystallinity% of both ESF and TSF scaffolds. The crystallinity percentage of the ESF and TSF scaffolds was found to be 46.7 and 42.8 % respectively. Thermal stability was higher for ESF than that of TSF scaffold. The hemolytic % of ESF and TSF scaffolds was found to be 1.3 and 7.7 % respectively. The platelet adhesion on the surface of ESF scaffold was lower than that found on TSF scaffold. Better fibroblast cell attachment, binding and spreading was found on the ESF scaffold. The cell viability on ESF scaffold was 83.78 % and in TSF was 78.01 % for 48 h. The results showed that ESF electrospun scaffold can be considered as a better biomaterial for biomedical applications compared to that of TSF scaffold.