Effect of tributyl citrate on chitosan scaffold: chemical, physical properties, pro/anti inflammation cytokines

Abstract

Scaffold design is one of the main issues for tissue engineering studies. Plasticizers are generally used to improve chemical, physical properties, and processing parameters of polymers, as well. Chitosan (CS) is one of the most studied biopolymer and commonly used in various areas, but for tissue engineering applications, the mechanical properties of CS are limited. The aim of this study was to overcome this shortcoming by using tributyl citrate (TBC) as a plasticizer and investigate the effects of CS scaffold. For this purpose, CS and TBC (3, 10 and 30 % w/w) blend sponge scaffolds were formed and chemical, mechanical and physical properties of formed scaffolds were characterized. Cytotoxicity of the scaffolds on mouse fibroblast (L929) and human monocytic cell line (THP-1) cells were investigated. Monocytes have critical role in host reaction. Therefore, to evaluate pro/anti-inflammatory properties of the material, TNF-α and IL-10 levels of macrophage cultured with scaffolds were measured. It was observed that, CS-3 blend scaffold has more tensile straight value and swelling degree than the other sample groups, 3 % TBC concentrations has no cytotoxic effect and slightly increased the pro/anti inflammation cytokines levels.