Pulling and analyzing silk fibers from aqueous solution using a robotic device
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2023-10-01
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
10
Series
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Volume 250
Abstract
Spiders, silkworms, and many other animals can spin silk with exceptional properties. However, artificially spun fibers often fall short of their natural counterparts partly due sub-optimal production methods. A variety of methods, such as wet-, dry-, and biomimetic spinning have been used. The methods are based on extrusion, whereas natural spinning also involves pulling. Another shortcoming is that there is a lack feedback control during extension. Here we demonstrate a robotic fiber pulling device that enables controlled pulling of silk fibers and in situ measurement of extensional forces during the pulling and tensile testing of the pulled fibers. The pulling device was used to study two types of silk—one recombinant spider silk (a structural variant of ADF3) and one regenerated silk fibroin. Also, dextran—a branched polysaccharide—was used as a reference material for the procedure due to its straightforward preparation and storage. No post-treatments were applied. The pulled regenerated silk fibroin fibers achieved high tensile strength in comparison to similar extrusion-based methods. The mechanical properties of the recombinant spider silk fibers seemed to be affected by the liquid-liquid phase separation of the silk proteins.Description
Funding Information: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland through the following four projects: AI spider silk threading (ASSET) in the AIPSE program (projects # 317018 and # 317019 ), project # 317395 , and the Center of Excellence Program (2022-2029) in Life-Inspired Hybrid Materials (LIBER) (project # 346105 ). The work was also supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (project # 0061306 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors
Keywords
Liquid-liquid phase separation, Protein fiber, Spidroin
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Citation
Välisalmi, T, Bettahar, H, Zhou, Q & Linder, M B 2023, ' Pulling and analyzing silk fibers from aqueous solution using a robotic device ', International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, vol. 250, 126161 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126161
