Silk fibroin is a well-known biodegradable material, and there are hundreds of publications about the usage of silk fibroin in tissue engineering, wound healing, drug delivery etc. However, silk sutures are non-absorbable (non-degradable), as indicated in the suture selection guides of all the suture manufacturers.
So... is silk fibroin degradable or not? If it is degradable, why is it used for the non-degradable sutures?
when it is used as a bio material so its degradable because of the enzymatic process going on inside the body.
The major component of silk is Fibroin Protein which mainly consists of repeated units of amino acids........Gly-Ser-Gly-Ala-Gly-Ala......it makes a beta-pleated sheet. The presence of high proportion of Gly makes a possibly more tightly packed structure which remains stable against even some acids and bases. However, the slow degradation process has been reported by many investigators.
Silk is definitely degradable but with slow degradation process and that's why its commonly used in biomaterials likes sponges etc
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