Figure 6.

Sonication-induced silk fibroin hydrogel preparation. (a) Ultra-sonication procedure used for aqueous silk solution transformation into a solid silk hydrogel. (b) Schematic illustration of the mechanism of silk sol-gel transition due to physical crosslinking and β-sheet aggregate formation after ultra-sonication. (c) Injectable properties of the silk hydrogels. (d) Silk hydrogel being injected into rabbit maxillary sinus cavity. (e) Illustration of the elevated sinus in a sagittal plane being filled by the injected silk hydrogel. Reprinted from a previous study [179] with permission.