Extraction of silk fibroin and glycidyl methacrylate grafting on silk fibroin optimization of SF-g-GMA for meniscus tissue engineering

In this work, silk fibroin (SF) fibers were dissolved in calcium chloride (CaCl2) solution. Effects of CaCl2 concentration (40, 50 and 60%wt) and ratio between silk fibroin and CaCl2 (1:5, 1:10, 1:15, 1:20 and 1:25 wt/wt) on silk fibroin solubility were studied. Dialysis method was used to remove salt and purify the dissolved silk fibroin. Effect of dialysis time on the efficiency of removing salt was studied. Glycidyl methacrylate was grafted onto SF by the trans-esterification reaction. The grafting reaction was confirmed by FTIR.