ABSTRACT
The newly developed approach of tissue engineering has been shown to be great potential on the ligament reconstruction, however, the criterion for the scaffolding material was strict. The scaffold material must have enough strength as well as elasticity, at the same time, it should be biocompatible. As a nature protein, silk is a promising tissue engineering scaffold material for its excellent mechanical property. However, because of the contamination of sericin, the chief problem of silk's medical use is degumming. We compared three degumming reagents to choose the one which has least effect on the mechanical property of silk, and then the best degumming condition was confirmed: 0.4%NazCO3, 90 degrees C, 1 h. Rat bone morrw mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) were seeded on the fibroin, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) and fluorescence microscope were used to detect the biocompatibility of it. And the results showed that fibroin had outstanding biocompatibility and cell affinity, which indicated the further use of fibroin in tissue engineering.