Silk fibroin-reinforced hydrogels for growth factor delivery and in vitro cell culture

A variety of polymers of synthetic origins (e.g., poly(ethylene glycol) or PEG) and naturally derived macromolecules (e.g., silk fibroin or gelatin) have been explored as the backbone materials for hydrogel crosslinking. Purely synthetic hydrogels are usually inert, covalently crosslinked, and have limited degradability unless degradable macromers are synthesized and incorporated into the hydrogel network. Conversely, naturally derived macromers often contain bioactive motifs that can provide biomimicry to the resulting hydrogels. However, hydrogels fabricated from a single macromer often have limitations inherent to the macromer itself. For example, to obtain high modulus PEG-based hydrogels requires an increase in macromer and crosslinker content. This is associated with an increase in radical concentration during polymerization which may cause death of encapsulated cells. Pure gelatin (G) hydrogels have weak mechanical properties and gelatin undergoes thermo-reversible physical gelation. Covalent crosslinking is usually necessary to produce stable gelatin hydrogels, particularly at physiological temperatures. The limitations of these hydrogels may be circumvented by combining them with another macromer (e.g., silk fibroin) to form hybrid hydrogels. Silk fibroin (SF) from Bombyx mori silkworms offers high mechanical strength, slow enzymatic degradability, and can easily form physical hydrogels. The first objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of sonication and the presence of synthetic polymer (e.g., poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate or PEGDA) or natural macromer (e.g., gelatin) on SF physical gelation kinetics. SF physical gelation was assessed qualitatively via tilt tests. Gelation of pure SF solutions was compared to mixtures of SF and PEGDA or G, both with or without sonication of SF prior to mixing. The effect of gelatin on SF gelation was also evaluated quantitatively via real time in situ rheometry. Sonication accelerated gelation of SF from days to hours or minutes depending on SF concentration and sonication intensity. Both PEGDA and G were shown to accelerate SF physical gelation when added to SF and sonicated SF (SSF) solutions. The second objective was to develop a simple strategy to modulate covalently crosslinked PEG-based hydrogel properties by physically entrapping silk fibroin. The physical entrapment of silk fibroin provides an alternative method to increase gel storage modulus (G0) without the cytotoxic effect of increasing macromer and crosslinker concentration, or altering degradation kinetics by increasing co-monomer concentration. The effect of SF entrapment on gel physical and mechanical properties, as well as hydrolytic degradation and chemical gelation kinetics were characterized. SF physical crosslinking within the PEG-based network was shown to increase gel storage moduli by two days after gel fabrication. There was no change hydrolytic degradation rate associated with the increased moduli. SF entrapment did not affect gelation efficiency, but did alter gel physical properties. The third objective of this thesis was to develop a silk-gelatin in situ forming hybrid hydrogel for affinity-based growth factor sequestration and release and in vitro cell culture. SF provides mechanical strength and stability, whereas G contains bioactive motifs that can provide biomimicry to the gel network. Hydrogel G\u27 and its dependency on temperature, SF processing conditions, and secondary in situ chemical crosslinking (i.e., genipin crosslinking) were studied. Gelatin can be conjugated with heparin, a glycosaminoglycan, to impart growth factor (GF) binding affinity. Growth factor sequestration and release were evaluated in a pair of designed experiments. The hybrid gels were evaluated as substrates for human mesenchymal stem cell proliferation