Native-like Flow Properties of an Artificial Spider Silk Dope

Abstract

Recombinant spider silk has emerged as a biomaterial that can circumvent problems associated with synthetic and naturally derived polymers, while still fulfilling the potential of the native material. The artificial spider silk protein NT2RepCT can be produced and spun into fibers without the use of harsh chemicals and here we evaluate key properties of NT2RepCT dope at native-like concentrations. We show that NT2RepCT recapitulates not only the overall secondary structure content of a native silk dope but also emulates its viscoelastic rheological properties. We propose that these properties are key to biomimetic spinning and that optimization of rheological properties could facilitate successful spinning of artificial dopes into fibers.

Keywords

recombinant spider silk proteins; biomimetic materials; rheology; protein secondary structure

Published in

ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering
2021, volume: 7, number: 2, pages: 462-471
Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC

SLU Authors

• Rising, Anna

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Karolinska Institute

UKÄ Subject classification

Bio Materials

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.0c01308

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/111022