Shingo Kawabata

Effect of an artificial silk elastin-like protein on the migration and collagen production of mouse fibroblasts

A silk elastin-like protein (SELP) is an artificial compound composing silk fibroin-like and elastin-like tandem repeats. The objective of this study is to evaluate the SELP effect on the migration, proliferation, and proteins production of L929 mouse fibroblasts. Upon culturing with different concentrations of SELP, the cells migration and their collagen production significantly enhanced in the SELP concentrations from 10−3 to 10 μg/ml. However, irrespective of the SELP concentration, no difference in the production of fibronectin, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and stromal cell-derived factor 1α (SDF-1α) was observed. When the migration of mouse peritoneal macrophages by SELP was evaluated, significant enhancement of macrophages migration was observed in any concentration. It is concluded that the SELP has a potential to promote the migration of fibroblasts and macrophages, and the fibroblast collagen production.

Electrodeposition of pronectin for titanium to augment gingival epithelium adhesion.

This paper is one trial of surface modification of titanium with pronectin F+ (PN) of an artificial protein to enhance gingival adhesion. Titanium plates were electrodeposited in the PN solution to prepare PN‐electrodeposited titanium plates. When PN detachment from the PN‐electrodeposited titanium plates was investigated, no detachment was observed, in contrast to the case of titanium plates simply coated with PN. A cell culture experiment demonstrated that electrodeposited PN had an inherent ability to enhance the initial attachment of gingival epithelial cells. The PN‐electrodeposited titanium plates were implanted between the gingival epithelium and the underlying bone tissue of rabbits to evaluate epithelial growth on the plates and their gingival adhesion. Non‐treated and PN‐coated titanium plates were used as controls. PN electrodeposition enhanced epithelial growth and adhesion of titanium plates to a significantly great extent compared with PN‐coated plates. These findings demonstrate that PN electrodeposition is a promising method to enhance epithelium adhesion onto a titanium surface. Copyright

The development of a novel wound healing material, silk-elastin sponge

Abstract Silk-elastin is a recombinant protein polymer with repeating units of silk and elastin blocks. This novel wound healing promoting material has the ability to self-assemble from a liquid to a gel. We have already reported that an aqueous solution of silk-elastin has the potential to accelerate wound healing; however, there are several problems in applying silk-elastin in the clinical setting. To solve these problems, we developed a silk-elastin sponge that is easy to use in the clinical setting. In the present study, we examined whether the wound healing effect of the silk-elastin sponge is equal to the aqueous solution of silk-elastin in vivo. The granulation tissue formation promoting effect of the silk-elastin sponge was equal to that of the aqueous solution the silk-elastin, as after application to the wound surface, the sponge was absorbed and dissolved by the exudate. At body temperature the silk-elastin then formed temperature gel. The silk-elastin gel that was obtained contained abundant cytokines from the exudate. We believe that silk-elastin sponge can be applied to various wounds that are difficult to treat with the aqueous solution.