Engineering Biohybrid Fibrous Materials: Silk Fibroin Textiles Combined with Decellularized Porcine Small Intestine for Wound-Healing Applications.

Abstract

Burn wound treatments remain a clinical challenge due to the complexity of skin regeneration and the need for advanced biomaterials that recapitulate the native extracellular matrix (ECM). In this study, a multilayer hybrid dressing is developed by integrating a silk fibroin (SF)-based textile with a decellularized porcine small intestine (dPSI) matrix, embedded within an enzymatically crosslinked silk sericin (SS) hydrogel. This composite construct combines mechanical reinforcement, bioactivity, and bioadhesion, offering a multifunctional platform with potential for wound dressing applications. The decellularization process effectively reduced cellular content while preserving essential ECM components. The incorporation of dPSI into SS-based hydrogel results in a stable and bioactive layer, reinforced by the SF-based textile for structural integrity. The hybrid dressings exhibit favorable swelling capacity for absorbing wound exudate and demonstrate a stable degradation profile across wound-relevant pH conditions in simulated wound fluid (SWF). Tunable mechanical properties are observed depending on the orientation of the dPSI (tunica serosa or mucosa) relative to the SF-based textile. In vitro studies with human dermal fibroblasts (hDFs) confirm high cell viability, adhesion, and metabolic activity over 10 days, with enhanced proliferation in the hybrid constructs compared to dPSI alone, indicating the positive contribution of SS hydrogel in supporting cell response. These findings demonstrate that the developed multilayer hybrid construct possesses promising structural, chemical, and biological properties for application as a dressing in wound treatment.