چكيده لاتين
Introduction: The evolution of spider silk is comparable in importance to the evolution of flight in the insects and warm-bloodedness in vertebrates. The main characteristic feature of spiders is their ability to produce silk. Although some insects can produce silk, which is usually limited to one stage of life, on the other hand, all spiders have spinning glands that are not only used to make egg sacs (cocoons) and draglines (ropes for pulling and moving) but also to make traps. Spider silk, which is composed of moisture-sensitive hydrophilic flagelliform proteins, is known as a fiber with excellent mechanical properties and is a versatile biomaterial for tissue engineering, known for its mechanical properties such as high flexibility and tensile strength and offers a wide range of medical applications. Other attractive features of spider web include excellent compression, ease of dyeability, extensive softening, and the ability to dissolve in aqueous solutions at room temperature. Spider silk is also antimicrobial, hypoallergenic and completely biodegradable. Another interesting feature of silk which is less noticed is its ability to absorb moisture.
Materials and Methods: Spider cocoons and silkworm cocoons were collected from the environment and then tested in two ways. First, they were used as a wound dressing for rats by simple washing without disinfection. Then several methods were tried to disinfect the cocoons and finally the disinfected cocoons were tested in the liquid environment containing microbes to see if it prevented the growth of microbes or not.
Conclusion and Discussion: In the first stage, it was observed that the length of the wound in the control group was the lowest in the group that had a dressing for one week, which means that the healing of the wound in the control group was probably better than the other two groups. The spider cocoon group ranked second and the improvement was better than the third group, and the silk cocoon group ranked third and the wound healing was the weakest. In the group that had a dressing for two weeks, the length of the wound in the spider cocoon group is slightly less than the control group, but was-similar to the control group, and the silk cocoon group ranks third. These results were probably obtained due to the natural use of cocoons without disinfection and the presence of contamination. In the second stage, ultraviolet ray disinfection was effective for spider cocoon disinfection, and the cocoon was examined in a liquid environment. All disinfection methods were ineffective for silkworm cocoon disinfection, so it was not tested in the liquid environment. According to the tests, it was found that the cocoons do not have antimicrobial properties against all bacteria, and they also do not have antifungal properties, so the cocoons in nature, which have been exposed to many bacteria and fungi, are not disinfected and antifungal. Therefore, the cocoons collected from the environment must be disinfected, which may cause healing of the wound, otherwise, they will reduce healing. Finally, the test of disinfected spider cocoons in the liquid environment containing microbes showed that the growth of microbes in the spider cocoon group was not significantly different from the control group, and therefore, the spider cocoon did not prevent the growth of microbes.
