Anisotropic Tussah Silk Nanofiber Scaffolds for Accelerating Wound Repair

Scaffolds with anisotropic structures are attractive for wound repair due to their enhanced ability to promote cell adhesion, migration, and tissue growth. In this study, anisotropic tussah silk nanofiber (TSn) scaffolds were developed through physical shearing, NaOH hydrolysis, and ice templating to accelerate wound healing. The anisotropic TSn scaffolds demonstrated radial and aligned structures, which would influence cell behavior and tissue regeneration. In vitro cellular studies have demonstrated that radial and aligned structures promoted fibroblast proliferation and directional migration. Furthermore, the disordered scaffolds (DS), aligned scaffolds (AS), and radial scaffolds (RS) were investigated to elucidate the effect of the different structures on wound healing. In vivo results demonstrated that the RS (99.8 ± 0.1%) exhibited the fastest healing rate, which may be attributed to the enhanced peripheral to central growth of blood vessels (the positive expression rates of CD31 and α-SMA were 13.0 ± 1.1% and 18.8 ± 0.8%, respectively) and tissues (the collagen deposition rate was 71.2 ± 3.5%) 14 days post implantation under the guidance of its radial structure. Taken together, biomimetic TSn scaffolds with radial structures performed the best in wound healing, offering promising applications in skin wound healing.