Silk fibroin as a potential candidate for bone tissue engineering applications

Abstract

Silk fibroin (SF), a pivotal biomaterial, holds immense promise for diverse applications within the realm of bone tissue engineering. SF is an ideal scaffold material with exceptional biocompatibility, mechanical robustness, biodegradability, and bioactivity. A plethora of investigations have corroborated SF's efficacy in supporting bone tissue repair and regeneration. This comprehensive review delves into the structural attributes, physicochemical characteristics, and extraction methodologies of SF. Moreover, it elucidates the strides taken in harnessing SF across a spectrum of forms, including films, hydrogels, scaffolds, electrospun fibers, and composites for bone tissue engineering applications. Moreover, the application bottleneck of SF as a bone repair material is highlighted, and its development prospects and potential biomedical applications are also presented in this review. We expect that this review can inspire the broad interest of a wide range of readers working in the fields of materials science, tissue engineering, biomaterials, bioengineering, and biomedicine.