Cell Culture
Attacus atlas fibers showed considerably higher cell den- sities from the MTS assay compared to the B. mori silk fi- bers. Cells on the A. atlas fibers reached confluence af- ter 5 days of culture compared to 7 days for the B. mori silks. As seen from Figure 7, the cell density on the A. atlas fibers was higher on all days of culture compared to the B. mori fibers. At their respective days of conflu- ence, the A. atlas fibers had nearly 80 % higher cell den- sities per unit area of the fibers suggesting that the A. atlas fibers were more conducive to cell attachment and growth. Confocal image in Figure 8 showed that the cells had extensive spreading of the cytoskeleton (red) and the presence of numbers of cells (cell nuclei in blue). The left panel in Figure 8 shows that the cytoskele- ton has covered the fibers and the cells appear to grow along the length of the fibers. Overall, the cell culture studies demonstrate that A. atlas fibers are biocompat- ible and would be suitable for tissue culture and other medical applications.