Sericin, a waste product of the silk textile industry, has favorable physicochemical and biological properties. In this study, we extracted a low molecular weight MW sericin LMW-sericin; below 10 kDa by a performing high-temperature and high-pressure method and confirmed the MW using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight and liquid chromatography—mass spectrometry.
Furthermore, we determined its biological effects on macrophages and human adipose stem cells hASCs as cell models to investigate the biocompatibility, immunomodulation behavior, and potential signaling pathway-related wound healing via analyses of gene expression of focal adhesion and human cytokines and chemokines using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and cytokine assay.
Macrophages cultured with 0. LMW-sericin also improved the differentiation of macrophages toward the M2 phenotype by significantly enhancing the expression of Arg-1, which is conducive to the repair of the inflammatory environment. These findings provide insights into LMW-sericin application as a potential biomaterial for wound management.
Major biological processes such as ribosome production, stress adaptation e. Despite their importance, smaller proteins are rather underrepresented in wound healing studies. Wound healing is a complex process of cellular and biochemical metabolisms, and necessitates a large number of nutritional substrates, particularly protein, which is essential throughout the wound-healing process. Unfortunately, sericin is a waste product during the manufacturing of the traditional silk textile industry and removed during the silk degumming process.
As a component of small protein, sericin has not been investigated extensively. Due to its significant pH-induced instability, water solubility, and temperature, sericin alone in its pure form has a high degradability.
