Protein Paper from Exfoliated Eri Silk Nanofibers.

The exfoliation of silk fiber is an attractive method to produce silk micro- and nanofibers that retain the secondary structure of native silk. However, most fibrillation methods used to date require the use of toxic and/or expensive solvents and the use of high energy. This study describes a low cost, scalable method to produce microfibrillated silk nanofibers without the use of toxic chemicals by controlling the application of shear using commercially scalable milling and homogenization equipment.

Addressing the cost of infractions in the online literature and databases.

Myocardial infarction sometimes appears misspelt as myocardial infraction in the cardiovascular research literature. With accurate citation of literature contributions important to advancing the field and its contributors, in this study we aimed to document the frequency and explore the causes and impact of this error specific to the cardiology literature. Literature databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, WIPO, Google Scholar, Google) were searched to identify the rate of myocardial infraction errors and found an error rate between 0.

Glycerol-plasticised silk membranes made using formic acid are ductile, transparent and degradation-resistant.

Regenerated silk fibroin membranes tend to be brittle when dry. The use of plasticisers such as glycerol improve membrane ductility, but, when combined with aqueous processing, can lead to a higher degradation rate than solvent-annealed membranes. This study investigated the use of formic acid as the solvent with glycerol to make deformable yet degradation-resistant silk membranes.

Comparative acoustic performance and mechanical properties of silk membranes for the repair of chronic tympanic membrane perforations.

The acoustic and mechanical properties of silk membranes of different thicknesses were tested to determine their suitability as a repair material for tympanic membrane perforations. Membranes of different thickness (10-100μm) were tested to determine their frequency response and their resistance to pressure loads in a simulated ear canal model. Their mechanical rigidity to pressure loads was confirmed by tensile testing.

Ischemic preconditioning for cell-based therapy and tissue engineering.

Cell- and tissue-based therapies are innovative strategies to repair and regenerate injured hearts. Despite major advances achieved in optimizing these strategies in terms of cell source and delivery method, the clinical outcome of cell-based therapy remains unsatisfactory. The non-genetic approach of ischemic/hypoxic preconditioning to enhance cell- and tissue-based therapies has received much attention in recent years due to its non-invasive drug-free application.