Regenerated silk fibroin has been proposed as a material substrate for biomedical, optical, and electronic applications. Preparation of the silk fibroin solution requires extraction (degumming) to remove contaminants, but results in the degradation of the fibroin protein. Here, a mechanism of fibroin degradation is proposed and the molecular weight and polydispersity is characterized as a funct...

Herein, we report on the synthesis and characterization of enzymatically labile polyureas for use as a tissue-engineered ligament scaffold. Polyureas were selected due to their excellent tensile properties, fatigue resistance, and highly tunable nature. Incorporation of a collagenase-sensitive peptide into the backbone of the polyurea provided a means to confer cell-responsive degradation to th...

Silk fibroin from the silkworm, Bombyx mori, has excellent properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradation, non-toxicity, adsorption properties, etc. As a kind of ideal biomaterial, silk fibroin has been widely used since it was first utilized for sutures a long time ago. The degradation behavior of silk biomaterials is obviously important for medical applications. This article will focus o...

National governments are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of their soil resources and are shaping strategies accordingly. Implicit in any such strategy is that degradation threats and their potential effect on important soil properties and functions are defined and understood. In this paper, we aimed to review the principal degradation threats on important soil properties in the UK...

In vitro degradation behaviors of three-dimensional tissue engineering porous scaffolds made from amorphous poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) with three different formulations have been systematically investigated up to 26 weeks in phosphate buffer saline solution at 37 degrees C. The following properties of the scaffolds were measured as a function of degradation time: dimensions, weight, compres...

during past decades, increased wastewater production by human activities intensified the problem of wastewater usewithout causing undesirable impacts on the environment and human life. however, practice of wastewater use inirrigation crops and green spaces needs careful control because of the potential presence of unwanted constituents such asheavy metals and organic contaminants. this research...

Suitable analytical markers to assess the degree of degradation of historic silk textiles at molecular and macroscopic levels have been identified and compared with silk textiles aged artificially in different environments, namely (i) ultraviolet (UV) exposure, (ii) thermo-oxidation, (iii) controlled humidity and (iv) pH. The changes at the molecular level in the amino acid composition, the for...