There is an increased interest for tissue engineering in the research field. Researchers have been trying to find a biocompatible material that is mechanically sound enough to be constructed into a scaffold for tissue repair. This study aims to evaluate the response of pluripotent human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) on spider silk adhered to glass slides. If hDPSCs respond to spider silk scaffolds similarly to other cell types, aligning along fibers, spider silk might be an attractive candidate material for helping to guide differentiation of these cells. Fibroblasts and osteoblasts were used in this study as a comparison to see if their morphology was similar to the hDPSCs. Over a two-week culture period, hDPSCs aligned and adhered to the spider silk more readily than fibroblast and osteoblast cells. These results suggest that spider silk could be used as a biomaterial to help guide hDPSC differentiation.

Cellular response to spider silk scaffolds

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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