Engineering of silk fibroin : from nanofibers to nanofibrous scaffolds for biomedical application

Nanofibers and nanofibrous scaffolds with hierarchical aligned structures are constructed by self-assembly and phase separation. As-prepared nanofibrous materials show a specifically high capacity in cell capture and promoting proliferation of cells. More interestingly, the nanofibrous materials can direct HUVECs to assemble into vessel-like structure and 3D growth of DRG neurites.