Recombinant Spider Silk-Silica Hybrid Scaffolds with Drug-Releasing Properties for Tissue Engineering Applications

Fabricating biomaterials with antimicrobial activity to prevent the growth of detrimental microorganisms is of great scientific and practical interest. Here, composite materials comprising recombinant spider silk proteins and mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) loaded with selected antibiotics and antimycotics are fabricated into films and hydrogels. The derived composite materials exhibit excellent antimicrobial properties with sustained release of antibiotics over the course of 15 days. Furthermore, antibiotics/antimycotics inclusion does not impair the cytocompatibility of the composite materials, all of which promote fibroblast cell adhesion and proliferation. Finally, processing of spider silk-MSN composite hydrogels using 3D printing is shown to enable the fabrication of patient-specific antimicrobial implants to prevent infection in the near future.