Page 267 - Advances in Textile Biotechnology

248 Advances in textile biotechnology

Medical
implants
Drug Molecular
release filtrations

Scaffolds for Applications of Dental
tissue engineering polymer nanofibers applications

Dressings for
Biosensors
wound healing
Preservation of
biological agents

10.3 Potential applications of polymer nanofi bers.

polymer concentration and viscosity, flow rate, and applied voltage, amongst

others (Sill and von Recum, 2008).
The ability to vary fiber size in the nanometer range has opened up the

possibility of using polymer nanofibers for biomedical and nanotechno-

logical applications. Recent uses of these materials have included tissue
engineering, medical implants, biosensors and drug release amongst others
(Fig. 10.3) (Huang et al., 2003). Thus, some examples of fibers made from

proteins such as fi brinogen (Wnek et al., 2003), gelatin (Li et al., 2005),
collagen-elastin mixtures (Buttafoco et al., 2006), or silk-like proteins (Jin
et al., 2004) have been obtained.

Some of the most important natural protein-based fibers with potential
for replacing synthetic fibers owing to their outstanding properties in terms

of strength, elasticity and the attempts for their biotechnological production
are described in the following subsections.

10.7.1 Silks

Silks are protein-based fibers produced in specialized glands of arthropods

for a variety of task-specific applications. Of all natural silk-producing
animals, mulberry silkworms (Bombix mori) are of the most economic
importance. B. mori silk fibers have been used for the production of textile

goods for centuries owing to their characteristic luster, moisture absorbance
and strength. Indeed, the variety of reactive amino-acid residues displayed
on the backbone of this kind of silk protein has mainly led the modifi cation
of their affinity for disperse dyes and water and their wrinkle recovery

(Hardy et al., 2008).
Orb-web spinning spiders are able to produce a variety of task-specifi c
silks, some of which have mechanical properties unmatched in the natural
world and similar to the very best synthetic fibers produced by modern

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