Curcumin Functionalied Silk Fibroin In The Application Of Anti-aging

With the improvement of living conditions and the increased population of the elderly, people are paying more attention to the discovery and use of anti-aging reagents. It has been widely reported that oxidative damage in the body is the main reason of aging. Curcumin is an ideal free radical scavenger that has multiple functions, such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and so on. However, the poor stability and solubility of curcumin limit its application in biomedical field.Silk fibroin is a natural protein that can be used to prepare biomaterials with excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility and biodegradability. A large number of studies have shown that silk fibroin-based materials can effectively maintain biological activity of biologically active molecules.Through addition of ethanol and PEG to silk solution, curcumin-loaded silk fibroin films(SCF) and nanoparticles(SCNP) were prepared in the present study. We analyzed the morphology and structure of SCF and SCNP using various approaches, such as SEM, FTIR and DSC, and found that the prepared biomaterials prepared were dominated by characteristic beta-sheet structure. Furthermore, curcumin was released slowly from SCF and SCNP, likely due to the high content of silk beta-sheet structure. DPPH radical scavenging results showed that the biological activities of curcumin was well maintained in the silk biomaterials. Finally, we studied the regulation of aging when rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs) were cultured in the presence of free curcumin(FC), SCF and SCNP, and the BMSCs proliferation, vitality and expression of P53, P16, HSP70 and β-Galactosidase were detected. The results indicated that FC, SCNP and SCF slowed down cell aging, with the silk-associated curcumin superior to the FC.In summary, as an excellent carrier for bioactive molecules, silk fibroin can maintain stability of curcumin and sustain release, which improved the effect of curcumin for retarding cell aging. Thus, combination of curcumin with silk fibroin can benefit the future applications of curcumin, such as in tissue engineering/repair.