The possibility of preparing regenerated silk fibroin (RSF)-based microspheres by a high-gravity anti-solvent precipitation method was explored. The high-gravity environment was generated by a rotating packed bed (RPB) reactor. Aqueous RSF solutions and ethanol were used as solvent and anti-solvent, respectively. The effects of liquid flow rates and anti-solvent/solvent ratios, as well as centrifugation and freezing time, on the formation, size distribution and morphology of RSF microspheres were investigated. The results showed that RSF microspheres, with diameters of 0.1–1.6 μm, can be prepared under high-gravity field via self-assembly of RSF molecular chains induced by ethanol and quenched by freezing and lyophilization. The mechanism of RSF microsphere formation was also discussed. In addition, rhodamine B was used as a model drug for evaluation of drug delivery capability of the RSF microspheres. The merits of this study lie in a simple low-cost apparatus with ease for scale-up and thereby potential high volume continuous production capacity, which is of practical advantages and industrial significance in preparation of protein microspheres for commercial mass production.

探索了通过高重力反溶剂沉淀法制备再生丝素蛋白（RSF）基微球的可能性。高重力环境是由旋转填充床（RPB）反应器产生的。RSF水溶液和乙醇分别用作溶剂和反溶剂。研究了液体流速和反溶剂/溶剂比率以及离心和冷冻时间对RSF微球的形成，尺寸分布和形态的影响。结果表明，可以通过乙醇诱导的RSF分子链的自组装，并通过冷冻和冻干淬灭，在高重力场下制备直径为0.1–1.6μm的RSF微球。还讨论了RSF微球形成的机理。此外，罗丹明B用作模型药物，用于评估RSF微球的药物传递能力。这项研究的优点在于一种简单的低成本设备，易于规模化生产，因此具有潜在的大批量连续生产能力，这在制备用于商业批量生产的蛋白质微球时具有实际优势和工业意义。