Sericin-Fixed Silk Fiber as an Immobilization Support of Enzyme

In this study, we attempted to evaluate a novel use of sericin-fixed silk fiber (SFx) as an immobilization support of enzyme. Sericin was fixed on the silk fiber using glutaraldehyde as a fixation reagent. After 6 hours of fixation, the degree of fixation increases linearly with linear decrease of the amount of bound $\alpha$-chymotrypsin (CT). This suggests that the increase of the degree of fixation is due to the further crosslinking of free aldehyde groups on the surface of sericin-fixed silk fiber (SFx). Even though perfect fixation was not achieved, sericin did not dissolve seriously and could be removed by further washing. The specific activity did not differ significantly after 6 hours of fixation. The activity of immobilized CT on SFx decreased to its half after 6 hours of incubation at 50$^{\circ}C$. However, it retained $78\%$ of initial activity even after 1 hour of treat­ment with $100\%$ ethanol. As a result, the SFx could be used as an immobilization support of enzyme in non-aqueous media at ambient temperature.