Sericin

Sericin, a constituent of the silkworm cocoon, was added to the culture of four mammalian cell lines: murine hybridoma 2E3-O,human hepatoblastoma HepG2, human epithelial HeLa and human embryonal kidney 293 cells. The proliferation of all cell lineswas accelerated in the presence of sericin. The hybridoma cellline was further studied. The 2E3-O cell line was so well adapted to serum-free medium that both the proliferation rate and maximum cell density in serum-free ASF103 medium were higher than in RPMI medium supplemented with all lots of FBS tested, and this proliferation was stimulated by the addition of sericin in a dose-dependent manner. Stimulation was observed at sericin concentrations from 0.01 to 0.1 %, although 1% sericin was severely harmful to the culture. In comparison with bovine serum albumin (BSA), a widely used supplement in serum-free medium, sericin had an equivalent effect on the proliferation of the hybridomas and sericin additively stimulated the proliferation w...

The domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori Linn., a lepidopteran molecular model and an important economic insect that are emerging as an ideal molecular genetic resource for solving a broad range of biological problems. The silkworm, B. mori produces massive amount of silk proteins during the final stage of larval development. These proteins are stored in the middle silk gland and they are discharged through the anterior duct and spinneret, at the end of the fifth instar. Two kinds of silk proteins have been distinguished as major components of silk cocoons, the first being fibroin, a fibrous protein composed of heavy (H) chain, Light (L) chain and glycoprotein linked by disulfide bonds and the second being sericin a natural macromolecular protein, serving as an adhesive to unite fibroin for making silk cocoons of silkworm, B. mori. Recently, silkworm is being used as biofactory for the production of useful protein using the silk gland, which has promoted the technological development ...

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Chulalongkorn University, 2007 At present, there have been widespread studies on the extraction of silk proteins as well as their applications. This thesis aims to study silk pigments, the other component of the silk, which was interesting no less than its protein. Silk pigments are composed of antioxidative substances such as carotenoids and phenolic compounds, particularly flavonoids. The results in this study showed that the complete removal of the pigments of Thai yellow Nangnoi silk waste, could be achieved by repeated batch extraction 5 time with ethanol at 80oC in a closed pressure vessel. The extracts exhibited the amounts of total carotenoids and flavonoids of 0.7 and 5.1 mg/g dry weight, respectively. Of these amounts, more than 60% of carotenoids contents and 70% of flavonoids contents were located on silk fibroin layer (an inner core protein). The constituents of this extract were then analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and it w...

Wool fabric was treated with hydrogen peroxide/sodium sulfite/sericin system to improve its printability with acid, reactive, and basic dyes. The treated printed fabrics showed higher degree of color intensity compared to the untreated printed ones. The fastness properties of the printed fabrics as well as the effect of the aforementioned system on some of the inherent properties of wool were

Islet transplantation is a promising treatment for diabetes. Serum is a necessary supplement in islet cultures, but it has various disadvantages including the risk of contamination by several pathogens. Results of this study suggest that sericin is a useful alternative supplement. Sericin accelerated the proliferation of the rat insulinoma cell line RIN-5F and improved the serum-free culture of rat islets.