Accelerated In Vitro Degradation of Optically Clear Low<i>β</i>-Sheet Silk Films by Enzyme-Mediated Pretreatment

Abstract

Patterned silk protein films possess desirable characteristics for corneal tissue engineering, including optical transparency, biocompatibility, cell alignment, and tunable mechanical properties, but current fabrication protocols do not provide adequate degradation rates to match the regeneration properties of the human cornea. This novel processing protocol makes silk films more suitable for the construction of human corneal stroma tissue and a promising way to tune silk film degradation properties to match corneal tissue regeneration.