Silk proteins spun from silkworms are a natural biopolymer. It includes fibroin and sericin that is coating the surface of fibroin fiber. Silk fibroin fibers have a history of 5000 years being used as a textile material for production of fabrics and clothing. Recently, rapid development of biotechnology, biomedical technology and materials science has opened the door for exploring silk protein as a functional natural biopolymer in various fields including biomedicine and biotechnology, etc (Kundu et al., 2014; Yang, Shuai, Zhang et al., et al., 2014; Yang, Shuai, Zhou et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2014). Both fibroin and sericin possess good biocompatibility and biodegradation, easy processing and modification, as well as nontoxic degradation product formation (Liu, Fan, Toh, & Goh, 2008; Kurland, Dey, Wang, Kundu, & Yadavalli, 2014). In particular, fibroin has low immunogenicity (Liu et al., 2008). Therefore, fibroin and sericin are considered promising candidates in the application of tissue engineering and controlled release systems (Melkea, Midhac, Ghoshc, Itoa, & Hofmann, 2016; Lamboni, Gauthier, Yang, & Wang, 2015). This review focuses on presenting an overview of application silk-based biomaterials in the field of biomedicine application. This review includes seven papers providing excellent research in material science, sericulture and biomedical science. Additionally, it covers the following four important topics:(1) silk-based template for inorganic mineralization,(2) silk-based scaffold for tissue engineering,(3) self-assembly of silk protein, and (4) silk-based carrier systems for the controlled release.

The first research paper in the review provides information regarding the preparation of silver chloride nanoparticles coated silk microfibers. Liangjun Zhu et al. at the College of Animal Science of Zhejiang University in China used micron-sized silk fibroin fiber as a template for depositing AgCl nanoparticles in order to improve the antibacterial activity of silk fibroin. They found out that silk microfibers prepared by alkaline hydrolysis help induce the deposition of AgCl nanoparticles because of their high surface to volume ratio and the fact that they have more side chain of amino acids containing carboxyl groups. The resulting AgCl nanoparticle coated silk microfibers showed obvious