Enhanced biological behavior of bacterial cellulose scaffold by creation of macropores and surface immobilization of collagen

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is considered a promising three-dimensional (3D) nanofibrous scaffold for tissue engineering. To further improve its biological behavior, BC scaffold was modified by the creation of macropores and the immobilization of collagen (COL) on the surface. The creation of macropores was performed by laser perforation technique and the immobilization of collagen was achieved by solution immersion and subsequent crosslinking. The asprepared macroporous BC/COL nanocomposite (denoted as mBC/COL) was characterized by SEM, FTIR, contact angle measurement, and dynamic mechanical analysis, and its cell behavior was evaluated by MTT assay. SEM and FTIR confirmed the presence of collagen coating and patterned macropores (300 μm). Although the presence of macropores and collagen reduced its storage modulus and hydrophilicity, mBC/COL exhibited sufficient stiffness and wettability. More importantly, preliminary cell studies demonstrated that mBC/COL exhibited improved biological activity over BC and BC/COL due to the co-existence of macropores and collagen. Open image in new window