A master thesis from Aalborg University
ASSESSMENT OF SILK FIBROIN FOR URETHRAL RECONSTRUCTION
Author(s)
Term
4. term
Publication year
2018
Submitted on
2018-05-31
Pages
53 pages
Abstract
Background: Urethral strictures have recurrent nature; therefore, treatment techniques often remain limited. Silk fibroin (SF) has shown promising results in the repair of urethral strictures, especially in combination with seeded cells. Still, the best combination of seeded cells on the SF scaffold is yet to be discovered. Aim: The aim of this project is to investigate a method for the assessment of SF tissue engineered sheets aimed for the repair of urethral defects. Methods: For the fabrication of the scaffolds, four different methods have been applied; electrospinning, freestanding silk films, freeze drying and stepwise deposition of SF. Afterwards, the scaffolds were seeded with cells; keratinocytes and fibroblasts. Thin polyester inserts were used as a control and transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) was measured. Lastly, immunostaining of cells was carried out to track cell proliferation. Results and conclusion: When it comes to scaffold fabrication, all the methods used in this study, beside free-standing silk films, had good mechanical properties and thickness and were support cell proliferation. SF showed to have desirable properties for cell growth, thus no difference between SF coated and the membranes without coating can be found. Measures of TEER showed inconsistent values over time, which might be due to detachment of the SF coating from the surface and difficulties while performing the method. Also, it was found that co-seeding with fibroblasts had effect on the formation of TJ in keratinocytes only when seeded on SF coated inserts.
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