Sericin from Fibroin-Deficient Silkworms Served as a Promising Resource for Biomedicine

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 15; no. 13; p. 2941
• Main Authors: Li, Yurong, Wei, Yongkang, Zhang, Guozheng, Zhang, Yeshun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.07.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Biocompatibility; Biological products; biomaterials; Biomedical materials; Cosmetics; Disease; drug delivery; Drug delivery systems; Drugs; Environmental impact; fibroin-deficient silkworm; Humidity; Methods; Molecular weight; Proteins; Review; sericin; Silk; Silk fibroin; Silkworms; Tissue engineering; Vehicles; sericin; tissue engineering; biomaterials; drug delivery; fibroin-deficient silkworm; cosmetics
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym15132941

Sericin, a fascinating natural biomaterial derived from silkworms, has received increasing interest in recent years for its unique bioactivity and high compatibility. Silkworms can be divided into wild-type or silk fibroin-deficient mutants according to whether they synthesize and secrete silk fibroin. Silk fibroin-deficient mutant silkworms and their cocoons are convenient for us to obtain diverse and high-quality sericin, which has been applicated in various fields such as cell culture, tissue engineering, drug delivery, and cosmetics. Here, we present an overview of our silkworm varieties resources, especially silk fibroin-deficient mutant silkworms. We optimized various extraction methods of sericin and summarized the characteristics and advantages of sericin. Finally, we developed and discussed a series of sericin-based biomaterials for promising applications for a diverse set of needs.