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<title>Background</title>
Recently, silk fibroin-based biomaterials have received attention for application in tissue engineering and drug delivery systems. The usefulness of heat sterilization methods for silk fibroin-based biomaterials was investigated in this study as all biomaterials are required to undergo a sterilization process when they are used in medical devices.


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<title>Methods</title>
The influence of wet and dry heating on the properties of fibroin molecules in silk fibroin sponges was investigated by measurements of solid-state ¹³C cross-polarization/magic angle spinning (CP/MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analyses, strength tests, and cell proliferation/migration assays.


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<title>Results</title>
¹³C CP/MAS NMR spectra of wet-heated sponges revealed no changes in the molecular structure below 50 °C. However, above 60 °C, the crystalline structure of the silk proteins transitioned from silk I to silk II; the silk II:silk I ratio increased with temperature. In contrast, dry heating (below 190 °C for up to 180 min) induced no structural changes in the fibroin molecules. These results indicate that, although autoclave sterilization (121 °C for 20 min) induces structural changes in silk fibroin sponges, no such changes are observed with the dry-heat sterilization (180 °C for 30 min). Sterilized sponges with a silk I structure can be obtained using dry-heat method during sterilization. Moreover, the structural differences between the wet- and dry-heated silk fibroin sponges did not influence their interaction with fibroblasts.


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<title>Discussion</title>
This study indicates that both autoclaving and dry heating are acceptable sterilization methods for silk fibroin-based sponges as the scaffold. In particular, dry heating maintains the stability of the secondary structure of the sterilized silk fibroin-based biomaterials.


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