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Updated: Dec 24, 2025
Microfluidic Dry-spinning and Characterization of Regenerated Silk Fibroin Fibers
Published on: September 4, 2017
Silk fibroin scavenges hydroxyl radicals produced from a long-term stored water-soluble fullerene system
Qiang Liu1, Yanghong Liu, Hongping He
1Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Xue Yuan Road No. 37, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China. haifengliu@buaa.edu.cn yubofan@buaa.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Fullerene has been investigated for use in intratracheal instillation and inhalation. However, its use may be compromised due to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from a long-term stored water-soluble fullerene system, which will result in pulmonary injury. In this study, we investigated the ability of different concentrations of silk fibroin (SF) to scavenge hydroxyl radicals (OH˙) produced by a water-soluble fullerene system. In addition, we elaborated the mechanism of OH˙ formation and scavenging, the degradation of water-soluble fullerene (WSF), and the effects of OH˙ and WSF on the viability of endothelial cells (ECs). WSF was found to rapidly degrade when incubated with SF at 4 °C, which suggested that OH˙ and the deposition of WSF over 5 half-lives might be reduced by mixing WSF with SF. Moreover, it was observed that OH˙ and WSF could generate adverse effects on EC viability, and OH˙ produced by the WSF system on day 55 could be scavenged by SF. Overall, this study indicated that SF as an antioxidant was capable of scavenging OH˙ and accelerating the degradation of WSF, which provides further insight into the application of WSF in intratracheal instillation and inhalation.
