PERIODONTICS
Scaffolds of silk fibroin were used for ligament
tissue engineering applications (31), (32).
Mesenchymal stem cells were seeded on a hybrid
scaffold, comprised of knitted silk fibroin and
aligned silk fibroin electrospun fibers, and led to
the expression and production of ligament-related
proteins (32).
2.2 Silk fibroin in bone regeneration
Silk fibroin scaffold may be a good substitute
for bone regeneration with better results than a
commercially available polylactic acid scaffold (33).
In vitro study showed that silk fibroin led to increase
activity of the obsteoblasts than polylactic acid,
while the in vivo tests revealed that the silk fibroin
scaffold regenerated 78.30% of the original bone
volume, while the polylactic acid implantation led
to only 49.31% bone formation in rats (33). Also silk
fibroin hydrogels injected in critical-sized defects in
rabbits resulted in greater trabecular bone volume
and thickness,significantly higher mineral and rate
of bone formation when compared to PLGA copolymer of polylactic-polyglycolid acid (34).
Not only scaffolds, but also silk fibroin membranes
proved bone regeneration abilities in animal
studies (35). Silk fibroin nanofiber membranes were
implanted in calvarial defects of rabbits for guided
bone r