The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of
silk sericin, a
protein from silkworm cocoon, on scratch wound healing in vitro. For applicable result in clinical use, we also study the efficacy of
sericin added to a standard antimicrobial cream,
silver zinc sulfadiazine, for open
wound care in the treatment of second-degree
burn wounds. In vitro scratch assays show that
sericin at concentration 100 μg/mL can promote the migration of fibroblast L929 cells similar to
epidermal growth factor (positive control) at 100 μg/mL. After 1 day of treatment, the length of scratch in
wounds treated with
sericin was significantly shorter than the length of negative control
wounds (culture medium without
sericin). For clinical study, a total of 29 patients with 65
burn wounds which covered no less than 15 % of total body surface area were randomly assigned to either control (
wounds treated with
silver zinc sulfadiazine cream) or treatment (
wounds treated with
silver zinc sulfadiazine with added
sericin cream) group in this randomized, double-blind, standard-controlled study. The results showed that the average time to reach 70 % re-epithelialization of the burned surface and complete healing in the treatment group was significantly shorter, approximately 5-7 days, than in the control group. Regarding time for complete healing, control
wounds took approximately 29.28 ± 9.27 days, while
wounds treated with
silver zinc sulfadiazine with added
sericin cream took approximately 22.42 ± 6.33 days, (p = 0.001). No
infection or severe reaction was found in any
wounds. This is the first clinical study to show that
silk sericin is safe and beneficial for
burn wound treatment when it is added to
silver sulfadiazine cream.