Microfluidic-assisted silk nanoparticle tuning. Issue 2 (30th November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wongpinyochit, Thidarat; Totten, John D.; Johnston, Blair F.; Seib, F. Philipp
• Is Part Of: Nanoscale advances. Volume 1:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 873
• Page End: 883
• Publication Date: 2018-11-30
• Subjects: 620.5
• DOI: 10.1039/c8na00208h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2516-0230

Abstract

Abstract : Silk is now making inroads into advanced pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Abstract : Silk is now making inroads into advanced pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Both bottom-up and top-down approaches can be applied to silk and the resulting aqueous silk solution can be processed into a range of material formats, including nanoparticles. Here, we demonstrate the potential of microfluidics for the continuous production of silk nanoparticles with tuned particle characteristics. Our microfluidic-based design ensured efficient mixing of different solvent phases at the nanoliter scale, in addition to controlling the solvent ratio and flow rates. The total flow rate and aqueous : solvent ratios were important parameters affecting yield (1 mL min −1 > 12 mL min −1 ). The ratios also affected size and stability; a solvent : aqueous total flow ratio of 5 : 1 efficiently generated spherical nanoparticles 110 and 215 nm in size that were stable in water and had a high beta-sheet content. These 110 and 215 nm silk nanoparticles were not cytotoxic (IC50 > 100 μg mL −1 ) but showed size-dependent cellular trafficking. Overall, microfluidic-assisted silk nanoparticle manufacture is a promising platform that allows control of the silk nanoparticle properties by manipulation of the processing variables.