LATERAL LIGHT EMISSION SILK FIBER FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

This device allows light from a laser light source to be applied to superficial or deep tissues of organs of living beings. Unlike the systems used until now with artificial light guides, in this invention the light application element consists of a section of fiber obtained from the sucker, extracted from the processing of the silkworm gland of a silkworm and used as a light guide. The sucker, which is essentially made up of fibroin, is highly transparent and has the quality of emitting light through its lateral surface along its length. The central element of the device is the sucker, whose length covers an interval between 0.1 and 1.0. The system is completed with an artificial guide that is connected, at one end, to the sucker by means of an assembly tube and, at the other end, to a light source. When illuminated from one end with conventional or laser light, it emits light laterally for several centimeters. This fiber can be implanted in human tissues without the need to be removed, due to its biocompatible and biodegradable nature. In addition, the surface of the sucker presents the chemical reactivity of fibroin, characterized by the presence on its surface of amino acids with reactive amino and carboxyl groups. By chemically activating them, it is also possible to cover the sucker with conductive polymers (polypyrrole, 25 PANI, etc.), or conductive carbon compounds (graphene, carbon nanotubes, etc.), or metals such as silver or copper, that give it conductivity, allowing the fiber to constitute an optical and electrical guide (optoelectrode).