Conclusion
Material processing techniques were established to generate silk film biomaterials for use in corneal tissue engineering. Both GFP-rCF and hCF cell lines successfully adhered, proliferated, and produced native matrix upon silk film substrates. In addition, patterned silk films were found to direct cell and actin filament alignment. Further work is needed to gain insight into how cell responses are modulated by modifying film properties. These changes will need to be correlated to understanding the mechanism
of tissue development on tailored silk film substrates. Silk films that measured 2 mm in thickness and that possessed microporous structures completely through the cross-sectional area were seeded with hCF, and then stacked upon one another to form a 3D construct. Over a period of 10 days in culture hCF remained viable and appeared to have proliferated throughout the construct. In addition, initial native matrix was produced suggesting that these silk film constructs can act as scaffolding for tissue engineering
applications. Future studies to further assess matrix generation in long term culture are also needed. Such studies will provide a more complete in vitro characterization of these silk film biomaterial scaffolds for future application in corneal tissue engineering. The results from this study suggest that silk film substrates can be used singularly or in combination to promote corneal tissue formation depending on the desired application. Future work will aim to further elucidate how such silk film substrates may be used for regenerative medicine purposes, with a specific interest in cornea.