Artificial skin from spider silk protein
doi:10.1038/nindia.2018.94 Published online 28 July 2018
Diabetic foot ulcers and pressure sores lead to irreversible skin damage that requires expensive skin-regenerating treatments. These treatments cannot efficiently kill bacteria that invade skin wounds. This delays the wound healing, severely disrupting the skin-regenerating process.
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati, India, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, led by Biman B. Mandal, prepared the mats with a top coat of spider-silk protein, antimicrobial peptides, a cell-binding agent and a growth factor.
The mats increased the adhesion and proliferation of specific human skin cells. When exposed to two skin-wound-infecting bacteria, the mats inhibited their growth.
“The skin grafts, made of biodegradable silk proteins, can be surgically implanted at a wound site,” says Mandal. They can also be used for screening drugs at a more affordable cost, he adds.
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