Silk Biomaterials: Applications and Future Prospects in Biomedical Engineering

Silk biomaterials have garnered significant attention in biomedical engineering due to their exceptional mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. This paper explores the historical and scientific significance of silk, tracing its origins from ancient China to its global dissemination via the Silk Road. The unique attributes of silk, particularly from Bombyx mori and spiders, position it as a prime candidate for various biomedical applications. Silk's molecular structure endows it with resilience, elasticity, and strength, making it suitable for tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound healing, and implantable devices. These applications benefit from silk's biocompatibility, tunable degradation rates, and ability to support cellular growth and tissue regeneration. Silk-based scaffolds, mimicking the extracellular matrix, facilitate cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation, showing efficacy in regenerating tissues such as bone, cartilage, skin, and nerve. Additionally, silk fibroin matrices enable controlled drug release, providing targeted and sustained therapeutic delivery. The future of silk biomaterials in biomedical engineering is promising, with research focused on enhancing their properties, integrating silk with other biomaterials, and developing advanced fabrication techniques like 3D bioprinting. The incorporation of bioactive molecules into silk matrices is also being explored to modulate cellular responses and enhance tissue regeneration. Ongoing studies aim to elucidate cell-silk interactions, optimize scaffold designs, and assess the long-term biocompatibility and degradation of silk-based implants. By combining silk's innate properties with emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, microfluidics, and stem cell engineering, next-generation biomedical devices and therapeutics can be developed, potentially revolutionizing patient care and addressing unmet clinical needs.