surface modification of cotton gauze by silk fibroin nanofibers as compatible biomaterial

The present research explores preparing and characterizing silk fibroin electrospun nanofibers on cotton gauze bandages to form a novel silk-gauze nanocomposite. the presence of the extracted silk fibroin on the cotton substrate surface was demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy (sem), attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (atr-ftir), wide-angle x-ray diffraction (waxd) and k/s values.  the sem images of cotton samples revealed the deposition of silk fibroin from silk fiber on the substrate surface. the dyed silk-gauze nanocomposite wound dressing presented significantly higher color strength than an uncoated gauze bandage. the physical properties of nanocomposite samples, i.e., porosity, tensile strength, bending characterizations, air permeability, and water uptake, were measured. the changes in the secondary structure of silk fibroin, morphology, crystallinity, hydrophilicity as well as cytotoxicity of nanocomposites were analyzed before and after undergoing treatments with ethanol and methanol. the results demonstrated a decrease in water uptake and porosity values and a slight increment in tensile strength and bending characterization of the treated nanocomposite samples compared to the untreated samples. mtt assay as an indirect cytotoxicity method showed cytocompatibility of the silk-gauze nanocomposite wound dressing. the indirect cytotoxicity results showed that samples treated with ethanol demonstrated no cytotoxicity on the l929 cancer cell line.