Silk-based matrices for bone tissue engineering applications

A growing world population with rapidly rising fractions of elderly and traumatic bone fracture cases makes bone tissue engineering (BTE) a necessity of the current times. Developing low-cost and biocompatible scaffolds using bioderived materials could be the logical choice for bone tissue repair. Silk is a biopolymer with several characteristics, including excellent biocompatibility and mechanical strength that makes it a potential candidate for various tissue engineering applications. There exists a vast body of literature regarding the use of silk in BTE. Several successful works have reported use of silk scaffolds for bone repair and regeneration. These works involve trials both in vitro and in vivo. A growing trend is observed towards designing mineralized nanofibrous and composite scaffolds. This chapter presents an overview of the field, from the perspective of materials and fabrication.