Spider dragline silk is a natural fiber that has excellent tensile properties; however, it is difficult to produce artificially as a long, strong fiber. Here, the spider (Araneus ventricosus) dragline protein gene was cloned and a transgenic silkworm was generated, that expressed the fusion protein of the fibroin heavy chain and spider dragline protein in cocoon silk. The spider silk protein co...

Stenopsyche marmorata larvae spin underwater adhesive silk for constructing nests and capture nets. The silk can be divided into fiber and adhesive regions, according to their function. The silk fiber region has a two-layer structure: a core layer situated at the center of the fiber and S. marmorata fibroin, the major component of the silk. In the anterior part of the anterior silk gland, the m...

Silk possesses many beneficial wound healing properties, and electrospun scaffolds are especially applicable for skin applications, due to their smaller interstices and higher surface areas. However, purified silk promotes microbial growth. Selenium nanoparticles have shown excellent antibacterial properties and are a novel antimicrobial chemistry. Here, electrospun silk scaffolds were doped wi...

introduction: glass-ionomer cements (gics) are one of the most important dental restorative biomaterials. the aim of this study was to synthesize glass-ionomer‒silk fiber composite and evaluate the effect of adding natural degummed silk fiber on the bioactivity and the ability to release fluoride by glass-ionomer cement. materials and methods: in this study, commercial fuji ii glass-ionomer cem...

Albeit silks are fairly well understood on a molecular level, their hierarchical organisation and the full complexity of constituents in the spun fibre remain poorly defined. Here we link morphological defined structural elements in dragline silk of Nephila clavipes to their biochemical composition and physicochemical properties. Five layers of different make-ups could be distinguished. Of thes...

THE colours and forms of moths and butterflies have inspired artists and poets for centuries. One of the oldest industries to evolve from insects is sericulture, or silk production. According to Confucius' records, silk was discovered in the third millennium B.C. in China. The Chinese held a monopoly over silk to the extent that anyone attempting to export silk came under the death sentence by ...

BACKGROUND Corn silk contains proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, Ca, K, Mg and Na salts, fixed and volatile oils, steroids such as sitosterol and stigmasterol, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, and flavonoids. Base on folk remedies, corn silk has been used as an oral antidiabetic agent in China for decades. However, the hypoglycemic activity of it has not yet been understood in terms of modern phar...

PURPOSE An animal periodontitis model is essential for research on the pathogenesis and treatment of periodontal disease. In this study, we have introduced a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of a periodontal pathogen to the alveolar bone defect of experimental animals and investigated its suitability as a periodontitis model. METHODS Alveolar bone defects were made in both sides of the mandibular thi...

The history of silk in the Near East begins in Syria in the Roman period, with cloth and yarn of the Han dynasty imported from China. Some of the cloth may well have been the delicate Chinese gauze, because during the first two centuries A.D. Roman writers were scandalized by its transparency, saying that the wearers were clothed only to be unclothed. Other types, damasks and embroidered silks,...

Background: Silk fibroin is a suitable protein for osteogenesis by inducing markers of bone formation in the cultures of osteoblasts, so we examined the ability of this protein to induce mineralized nodules in the rat bone marrow stromal cell cultures. Methods: Bone marrow stromal cells obtained from 4 to 6 weeks old Spruge-Dawely male rats were grown in primary culture for seven days and then ...