Emerging Strategies in Stimuli-Responsive Silk Architectures

The utilization of implantable devices beseeches highly invasive surgeries considering the adversaries in the insertion of large, impliable devices through the body channels, which necessitate the development of implantable devices using biocompatible shape memory polymers. Silk displays prodigious heterogeneity in its genetic structure and physical properties in accordance with the spinning and storage process, where proteins undergo folding and unfolding. The stimuli-responsive nature of silk can be explained with the help of the structural morphology and composition of the material, where the hydrogen bonds in beta-sheet domains and amorphous region act as switch points and net points, respectively. This review provides a primary attempt to enswathe all the literature available to date on the stimuli-responsive nature of silk and silk-based materials as a natural and biodegradable alternative for commercially used synthetic shape memory materials taking their elastomeric nature and reduction in glass transition temperature into account. Further constitutive model using the continuum approach has been utilized to explain the anisotropic elasticity damping effect and plastic deformation based on the alpha-helix chains, beta-sheets, and beta-spiral structures. The practicability to develop biomedical devices such as patient-specific-injectable scaffolds, drug carriers, and artificial muscles has been encompassed in this article.

Automated summary

The development of implantable devices using biocompatible shape memory polymers offers a less invasive alternative to the insertion of large, impliable devices. Silk materials exhibit heterogeneity in their genetic structure and physical properties due to folding and unfolding processes, and possess stimuli-responsive properties. This article explores the stimuli-responsive nature of silk and its potential applications in biomedical devices.