Development of Bioadhesive Biomaterials Based on Silk and Hyaluronic Acid

Silk fibroin can be derived from the silkworm Bombyx mori and it has the main properties for its use as bioadhesive biomaterial in medicine – biocompatibility, good mechanical properties and controllable degradation rate. On the other hand hyaluronic acid (HA) is an attractive polymer for biomedical applications, due to its biological and structural importance, as well as its ease of modification. Thus in this study, two types of silk raw materials for preparation of silk fibroin (SF) solutions were used. Obtained SF solutions with and without hyaluronic acid (HA) were cross-linked to form hydrogels. Widely used cross-linking agent glutaraldehyde (GTA) was used in this study. Two temperatures 37°C and 60°C were chosen to determine the effect of temperature on the cross-linking rate of the samples. The gelation time, swelling ratio and structural features of the adhesive were also studied.