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According to recent research findings, spider silk could be the secret behind creating artificial skin.

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<center>https://s2.postimg.org/z4aagasnt/Araneus_diadematus_underside_1.jpg</center><center><sub>[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk)</sub></center>

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In modern medicine, skin grafting is a vital procedure for treating burn victims and other skin related injuries. 

In the United States for instance, bedsores which is a chronic wound that hospitalizes patients afflicts about 6.5 million and gulps about $25 billion in estimated annual cost.

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Concept
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Artificial skin is being investigated for skin grafting, instead of using skin from the body. For such a procedure to be effective, such a material;
* would have to be something tolerated by the human body. 
* would also be embedded with skin cells within it to replace lost tissue.
* should also have the ability to degrade safely over time, once new skin grows in. 
* it should be able to handle the usual rigors that ordinary skin is expose to normally.

However, according to Hanna Wendt, a tissue engineer at Medical School Hannover in Germany, all materials investigated and researched on recently, did not fit well with the task.
Eventually, Hanna Wendt and her colleagues suggested that spider silk would be suitable for the job.

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<center>https://s2.postimg.org/tsvdvkyvd/0.Figure.png</center><center><sub>[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk)</sub></center>

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Spider Silk
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Studies have shown that the spider silk in the toughest natural material known. Also, past accounts in history, dating back to over 2,000 years ago, suggested that spider webs were medicinal and were using in treating infections, stemming bleeding, functioning as artificial ligaments, and healing wounds.


Hanna Wendt also said, as part of her research that the qualities of a spider silk which include stretchiness and extraordinary strength are valuable for various kinds of handling and for different kinds of implants. This is as opposed to the silk from silkworms. She further highlighted the fact that spider silk does not trigger rejection reactions from the body.

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Tests
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To carry out extensive test and research on her theory, Hanna Wendt and her colleagues first milked golden silk orb-weaver spiders. They stroke their silk glands and spooled up the fibers of silks that came out.

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<table><tr> <td><h6>https://s8.postimg.org/daeudawwl/2017-12-18.jpg</h6></td> <td><p><sub>35 days after culturing, about 98 percent of the cells were detected as being vital (green), with dead cells (red)  not easily observed</sub></p></td> </tr> </table>


<sub>[Source](https://www.livescience.com/15443-artificial-skin-spun-spider-silk.html)</sub>

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They next wove repeated meshes from the silk onto frames of steel. Further observations during the procedure showed that human skin cells that were placed on these spider web meshes could flourish, when given proper warmth, air and nurturing with nutrients.

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<table><tr> <td><h6>https://s8.postimg.org/gh9dwx1x1/2017-12-18_2.jpg</h6></td> <td><p><sub>The team cultivated the skin cells into "tissues" resembling epidermis (outermost skin layer), on the spider-silk meshes</sub></p></td> </tr> </table>

<sub>[Source](https://www.livescience.com/15443-artificial-skin-spun-spider-silk.html)</sub>

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Further procedure led them to cultivate the two main skin cell types; the fibroblasts and the keratinocytes, into patterns similar to tissues resembling epidermis (the outermost skin layer) and the dermis (layer of living tissue, below the epidermis) which contains the nerve endings, hair follicles, blood capillaries, sweat glands and other structures.

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<sub>*First day (A) - after seeding the mesh frame; and Fourth day (B) - researchers noticed that skin cells had spread from the corners into the meshes.*</sub>
<center>https://s17.postimg.org/xs78s0iun/journalpone0021833g002.jpg</center><center><sub>[Source](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44075394/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/spider-silk-may-provide-key-artificial-skin/#.WjhTdCPyD58)</sub></center>

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About the procedure, Hanna Wendt told LiveScience  that;
> "It was impressive to observe how human cells use spider silk."

While discussing the procedure adopted further, Hanna Wendt said that harvesting large amounts of spider silk for industrial standards and usage is not currently practical. 

She further opined that;
> "I think in the long term, for widespread daily clinical use, synthetic silk fibers providing the same mechanical- and cell culture- properties will be needed." 

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In Summary
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The massive potential behind the spider web and silk has made many research groups to currently go into studies and advanced research, in a bid to investigate ways to substantially grow synthetic spider silk, for clinical and various industrial usage.

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Further Reading: Paper [1](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0021833), [2](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21814557)

Source: [1](https://www.livescience.com/15443-artificial-skin-spun-spider-silk.html)

Reference: [1](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0145240), [2](https://www.livescience.com/8686-itsy-bitsy-spider-web-10-times-stronger-kevlar.html), [3](http://www.zdnet.com/article/synthetic-skin-spun-from-spider-silk/), [4](https://www.livescience.com/1094-spider-silk-repair-human-ligaments.html), [5](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44075394/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/spider-silk-may-provide-key-artificial-skin/)

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