Fabrication of porous scaffold by ternary combination of chitosan, gelatin, and calcium phosphate for tissue engineering

Abstract

Recently, 3D porous scaffolds using naturally derived polymers, i.e. chitosan (CHN), gelatin (GLN), and their blends have attracted attentions for tissue engineering applications. Research on the use of polymers and ceramic composites has been performed to improve biocompatibility of tissue scaffolds. However, calcium phosphate (CaP) coating on CHN/GLN blend scaffolds has not been well studied. In this study, we fabricated CHN/GLN films and scaffolds at various CHN/GLN blending ratios (100/0, 75:25, 50/50, 25/75, and 0/100) and established optimal CaP coating method on CHN/GLN blends. Increase in GLN content promoted both surface hydrophilicity and Ca/P ratio. The prepared CHN/GLN scaffolds displayed highly porous architecture with elastic nature. The effect of increase in GLN content on osteoblast proliferation was evident but no significant impact on alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. When the CHN/GLN scaffold was coated with CaP film, ALP activity was dramatically improved, and the 75/25 scaffold showed the highest ALP level among all CHN/GLN scaffolds. The present study demonstrated that the combination of CHN, GLN, and CaP coating can generate synergistic effects on the improvement of bioactivity of CHN/GLN scaffold and can be further used for the fabrication of hard tissue scaffolds.