## 1 Introduction  
The skin is a barrier that protects the body from various external attacks. When a skin wound occurs, regeneration proceeds through the wound healing process, which involves bleeding, inflammatory response, cell proliferation, and remodeling [1; 2]. The inflammatory response protects the body from pathogen invasion and plays an important role in the activation of the immune system, occurring immediately after an injury and lasting for up to 2 days. The activation of blood coagulation, inflammatory pathways, and the immune system at this stage prevents continuous loss of blood and body fluid, eliminates dying tissue, and prevents infection [3]. During the inflammatory process, inflammatory cells, such as macrophages and neutrophils, are mobilized and inflammatory and growth factors are secreted to control the wound healing process [3; 4]. However, excessive inflammation and long-term inflammatory responses delay wound healing and increase the difficulty of wound healing due to ulceration; therefore, controlling the inhibition and acceleration of inflammation is critical in wound healing [5; 6]. In addition, fibroblasts are important because they migrate to the damaged site in response to cytokines and growth factors that are secreted by platelets and macrophages when the skin is injured and proliferate to help in the wound healing phase [5; 7]. In the wound healing phase, nuclear factor kappa B (NFrkB) is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of several genes involved in inflammation, cell migration, differentiation, adhesion, and survival, and is closely related to the wound healing process of many cell types and tissues [8].  
Many natural substances have been used as biomaterials for wound healing, and a number of recent studies have focused on the silk protein sericin. Sericin is effective at inhibiting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines related to the inflammatory response and promoting the activity of anti-inflammatory cytokines [2; 9; 10; 11]. In addition, silk sericin is a substance that is known to improve cell adhesion, growth, and collagen production, and has been proven to have a wound healing effect [11; 12; 13; 14]. Although sericin has not been widely used as a biomaterial because it has been shown to induce an immune response, it displays high physiological activity when used at an appropriate concentration. Therefore, the use of an appropriate sericin concentration is important for its application as a biocompatible material.  
Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is a natural organic sulfur compound that has been proven to be an effective anti-inflammatory substance. MSM is effective at relieving pain, inflammation, arthritis, allergies, and asthma. Additionally, it can also attenuate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and inhibit nuclear factor kappa B (NF\(\kappa\)B) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). The latter is known to suppress oxidative stress and IL-6 and TNF-\(\alpha\) production by reducing the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) [15]. Recently, MSM's anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, anti-ketosis, and anti-cancer activities have also been actively investigated [16; 17; 18]. Owing to its anti-inflammatory effects, MSM is widely used in health supplements and cosme [19; 20; 21; 22] and has a high wound healing potential. However, few studies have investigated MSM to determine its wound healing and tissue regeneration capacity.  
In this study, we investigated the potential and synergistic effects of sericin blended with MSM in various ratios on anti-inflammatory activity and wound healing efficiency. To evaluate the effect of this new biomaterial on inflammatory response, the expression of COX-2/iNOS and NF\(\kappa\)B was analyzed using macrophages via Western blotting. The effect of the blended materials on the wound healing rate was evaluated using fibroblasts and a wound scratch model.