Comparison Study of Regenerated Wild Silk Materials

摘要

INTRODUCTION Silk is a protein polymer spun by insects and other organisms for natural purposes. For 5000 years, silk has been used as a textile; a practice originating in Asia. However, in recent years there has been interest in using silk as a biomedical material thanks to its unique physical properties. Silk is made up of smaller units called fibres. These fibres have unique repeating amino acid sequences, and this greatly affects the structure of the protein chain, which in turn affects the material properties of the silk. In this study, different types of silk will have their material properties tested and compared in order to determine their usefulness in biomedical applications.