Plant cell wall-mimicking silk-pectin hydrogel for coral reef regeneration

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25810110
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Green/Environmental chemistry
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: Numata Keiji 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 環境資源科学研究センター, チームリーダー (40584529)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: シルク / ネットワーク構造 / サンゴ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed a new method to prepare silk hydrogels and silk-pectin hydrogels via dialysis against methanol to obtain hydrogels with high concentrations of silk fibroin. The relationship between the mechanical and biological properties and the structure of the silk-pectin hydrogels was subsequently evaluated. The present results suggest that pectin associates with silk molecules when the silk concentration exceeds 15 wt%, suggesting that a silk concentration of over 15 wt% is critical to construct interacting silk-pectin networks. The silk-pectin hydrogel reported here is composed of a heterogeneous network, which is different from fiber-reinforced, interpenetrated networks and double-network hydrogels, as well as high-stiffness hydrogels (elastic modulus of 4.7 ± 0.9 MPa, elastic stress limit of 3.9 ± 0.1 MPa, and elastic strain limit of 48.4 ± 0.5%) with regard to biocompatibility and biodegradability.

Free Research Field

高分子構造、生体関連高分子