Silk Nanofibrous Scaffolds Assembled by Natural Polysaccharide Konjac Glucomannan

Natural silk fibroin nanofibers (SNF) have recently attracted great attention in the field of biomaterials due to their excellent biocompatibility, outstanding mechanical properties, and biomimetic nanostructures. However, the poor structural stability of SNF assembly in aqueous conditions remains a major obstacle to their biomedical application. In this work, SNF scaffolds with extracellular matrix-mimicking architecture and tunable properties were developed by using a small amount of konjac glucomannan (KGM) as a physical adhesive. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results revealed that KGM facilitated the formation of hydrogen bond networks between SNF as well as nanofibers/polysaccharide molecules, thereby reinforcing the interconnectivity between SNF. The water stability test showed that SNF scaffolds exhibited good structural stability in water when the mass ratio of KGM/SNF reached 2.5/100. Raising KGM content significantly enhanced the compression strength, modulus, and swelling ratio of the porous scaffold. Whereas, the nanofibrous morphology and porosity of the scaffolds were significantly sacrificed as KGM content exceeded 10% as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results. In vitro, cytocompatibility results also demonstrated the excellent biocompatibility of the biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds, and the high porosity significantly enhanced cell viability. These results suggest that KGM-reinforced SNF scaffolds may serve as promising candidates for biomaterial applications. Natural silk fibroin nanofibers (SNF) scaffolds with ECM-mimicking architecture and tunable properties were developed by using the natural polysaccharide konjac glucomannan (KGM) as a physical adhesive. The introduction of a small amount of KGM can confer the SNF scaffolds good structural stability in an aqueous environment, but does not significantly sacrifice the nanofibrous morphology and porosity of the scaffolds.image