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Blending with another biocompatible natural polymer is a potential way to enhance the mechanical properties and cell affinity of chitosan gels. In this study, chitosan (CH)/silk fibroin (SF) hybrid gels were fabricated by initiating gelation using β-glycerol phosphate at 37°C. Statistical analysis results from SEM images showed that the internal pore diameter of CH/SF gels with blending ratio of 75/25 was about 93.9 μm, and a number of micro fibers with the size of several micrometers were observed within the gels. Mechanical measurements showed that the compressive strength of CH/SF gels with blending ratio of 75/25 was about 4.39 kPa which were significantly bigger than that of CH gels, and it showed viscoelasticity characteristics of the elastic materials by rheological tests. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were incubated on CH/SF blend gels for 3 days. Results from SEM and LSCM observation showed that blending CH with SF was beneficial for the cell attachment, spreading and proliferation. These results indicated that the CH/SF gel is expected to be useful in tissue engineering.

In this work, the oxidized bacterial cellulose (BC) was modified by silk fibroin (SF) to improve its blood compatibility. The oxidized BC pellicles were added to the aqueous silk fibroin solution containing crosslinking agents at room temperature for different times to obtain the composite membranes. The structure of the new composites membranes were evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that silk fibroins were successfully fabricated on the oxidized bacterial cellulose (OBC) membranes surfaces, and the analysis on the quantity of the elements exhibits that the atom percentage of nitrogen reaches its maximum value at 24 h. The platelet adhesion, hemolytic test and protein adsorption results exhibited that the OBC/SF had significantly excellent blood compatibility featured by lower platelet adhesion and protein adsorption without causing hemolysis. This work provides a simple approach to fabricate composite biomaterials which exhibit wide biomedical application prospects.