Preparation of Antheraea Pernyi Silk Fibroin Microspheres by a Facile Electrostatic Differentiation Method

Microsphere carriers have considerable potential as a platform for the delivery of therapeutic molecules. Antheraea pernyi silk fibroin (ASF) is a promising biomaterial due to excellent biocompatibility, tailorable degradability, and the presence of intrinsic RGD tripeptide sequence. In this study, ASF microspheres with controllable size were fabricated by high-voltage electrostatic differentiation and freeze-drying. ASF microspheres are spherical in shape as determined by SEM with diameters in the range of 100 similar to 600 mu m. The effects of solution concentration and voltage on the size and morphology were investigated. The results showed that the microsphere size increased with the increasing concentration, while decreased when voltage is enhanced. Water-insolubility of ASF microspheres was achieved by inducing structural transition from random/alpha-helix to beta-sheet. Because of mild preparation conditions, the ASF microspheres are a promising drug carrier in biomedical field.