Serôdio, RicardoSchickert, Sónia L.Costa-Pinto, Ana R.Dias, Juliana R.Granja, Pedro L.Yang, FangOliveira, Ana L.2023-06-052023-06-052019Ricardo Serôdio, Sónia L. Schickert, Ana R. Costa-Pinto, Juliana R. Dias, Pedro L. Granja, Fang Yang, Ana L. Oliveira, Ultrasound sonication prior to electrospinning tailors silk fibroin/PEO membranes for periodontal regeneration, Materials Science and Engineering: C, Volume 98, 2019, Pages 969-981, ISSN 0928-4931, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2019.01.055.0928-4931http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/8563The authors acknowledge Portuguese National Funds from FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through project UID/Multi/50016/2013; Program FCT Investigator to A.L. Oliveira (IF/00411/2013), project SERICAMED (IF/00411/2013/CP1167), and through “Biotherapies-Bioengineered Therapies for Infectious Diseases and Tissue Regeneration”, funded by Norte2020. Project “IBEROS” (0245_IBEROS_1_E), funded by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional in the frame of Programa Interreg V A Espanha - Portugal (POCTEP) 2014–2020.In this study, silk fibroin (SF)/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) membranes were designed and fabricated by combining ultrasound sonication prior to electrospinning (0 to 20 min) as a strategy to physically control the rheological properties of solutions (10 to 30% w/v PEO) and to improve the spinnability of the system. PEO has proved to be essential as a co-spinning agent to assure good membrane reproducibility and enough flexibility for clinical manipulation. The rheological tests indicated that sonication greatly increased the viscosity of SF/PEO solutions and further enhanced the quality of the produced electrospun fibers with consequent improved mechanical properties in dry and wet conditions. By tuning the viscosity of the solutions using a simple sonication step prior to electrospinning, it was possible to induce water stability in the as-electrospun matrix, as demonstrated by infra-red spectroscopy. This reduced complexity in the process since it was not necessary to concentrate silk prior to electrospinning while avoiding the use of toxic solvents to perform a post-processing stabilization treatment which usually causes dimensional changes to the SF materials. Sonication pre-treatment allowed for minimizing the amount of synthetic polymer used to achieve the desirable mechanical properties (with the modulus ranging between 90 and 170 MPa), while avoiding a further water stabilization treatment. It also had a positive impact in the in vitro cell behavior of human primary periodontal ligament cells (hPDLs), resulting in a marked increase in cell proliferation. The present developed work constitutes a step forward towards simplicity and a better fabrication control of viable electrospun SFbased membranes for periodontal regeneration.engSilk fibroinPoly(ethylene oxide) membranePeriodontal regenerationElectrospinningUltrasound sonicationjournal articlehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2019.01.05530813104