Physicochemical and Biological Activities of the Gamma-Irradiated Blended Fibroin/aloe Gel Film

The physicochemical and biological properties of the blended fibroin/aloe gel film as a wound dressing were investigated to support the wound healing efficacy of the film described in our previous study. In the current study, protein content, molecular weight pattern, and chemical characteristics of the silk fibroin and the aloe gel extracts were analyzed. The two extracts were then dissolved in lactic acid solution and casted to obtain the blended fibroin/aloe gel film. We found that gamma irradiation did not affect any physicochemical properties of the film, i.e., the irradiated and the non-sterilized films had similar physical appearance, surface morphology, mechanical properties, and chemical characteristics. On normal human fibroblast cultures, the film induced non-cytotoxicity and stimulated the expression of vascular epidermal growth factor. The film-treated cells were shown to proliferate by shifting from G0/G1 phase (76.26±0.72%) to S phase (7.19±0.23%) and G2/M phase (16.09±0.58%) which are higher than the untreated cells. The film-treated cells provided a completely healed scratch at 36 h after scratch creation, while the created scratch of the untreated cells was not healed, indicating that the biological activity of the film enhanced the proliferation and the migration of fibroblast cells. We speculated that the prepared film might be able to use as wound dressing for the diabetic foot ulcer.