Tissue engineering (TE) is the approach to combine cells with scaffold materials and appropriate growth factors to regenerate or replace damaged or degenerated tissue or organs. The scaffold material as a template for tissue formation plays the most important role in TE. Among scaffold materials, silk fibroin (SF), a natural protein with outstanding mechanical properties, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and bioresorbability has attracted significant attention for TE applications. SF is commonly dissolved into an aqueous solution and can be easily reconstructed into different material formats, including films, mats, hydrogels, and sponges via various fabrication techniques. These include spin coating, electrospinning, freeze drying, physical, and chemical crosslinking techniques. Furthermore, to facilitate fabrication of more complex SF-based scaffolds with high precision techniques including micro-patterning and bio-printing have recently been explored. This review introduces the physicochemical and mechanical properties of SF and looks into a range of SF-based scaffolds that have been recently developed. The typical TE applications of SF-based scaffolds including bone, cartilage, ligament, tendon, skin, wound healing, and tympanic membrane, will be highlighted and discussed, followed by future prospects and challenges needing to be addressed.

Curcumin is a promising anti-cancer drug, but its applications in cancer therapy are limited, due to its poor solubility, short half-life and low bioavailability. In this study, curcumin loaded magnetic alginate/chitosan nanoparticles were fabricated to improve the bioavailability, uptake efficiency and cytotoxicity of curcumin to Human Caucasian Breast Adenocarcinoma cells (MDA-MB-231). Alginate and chitosan were deposited on Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles based on their electrostatic properties. The nanoparticle size ranged from 120–200 nm, within the optimum range for drug delivery. Controllable and sustained release of curcumin was obtained by altering the number of chitosan and alginate layers on the nanoparticles. Confocal fluorescence microscopy results showed that targeted delivery of curcumin with the aid of a magnetic field was achieved. The fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) assay indicated that MDA-MB-231 cells treated with curcumin loaded nanoparticles had a 3–6 fold uptake efficiency to those treated with free curcumin. The 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay indicated that the curcumin loaded nanoparticles exhibited significantly higher cytotoxicity towards MDA-MB-231 cells than HDF cells. The sustained release profiles, enhanced uptake efficiency and cytotoxicity to cancer cells, as well as directed targeting make MACPs promising candidates for cancer therapy.