Enhanced Tunability\nof Photo-Cross-Linkable Silk Sericins\nfrom Bombyx mori

Over the past decade, silk sericin has emerged as a promising\nmaterial\nfor biomedical applications, especially in tissue engineering, where\nfine-tuning the physicochemical properties is crucial. However, previous\nstudies, including those on the methacrylation of sericin (yielding\nSS-MA), showed limited tunability. Here, we developed a photo-cross-linkable\nsericin-based material modified with 2-aminoethyl methacrylate (AEMA)\nusing two synthesis routes: sequential modification of SS-MA with\nAEMA (SS-MA-AEMA) and an efficient one-pot synthesis (SS-AEMA). The\none-pot synthesis yielded materials containing only methacrylate groups,\nunlike the sequential modification that yielded a combination of methacrylamides\nand methacrylates. Our approach resulted in superior physicochemical\nproperties. The resulting materials, including the previously described\nSS-MA, exhibited a broad range of properties, such as cross-linking\nkinetics (0.9–64.0 s), swelling behavior (311–3775%),\nand mechanical properties (10–140 kPa). These properties support\napplications across various tissues, from dermis to fibrous tissue.\nThe materials also demonstrated fibroblast cytocompatibility with\ncell viabilities exceeding 96%.