Optimization and evaluation of silk fibroin-chitosan freeze-dried porous scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering application

Abstract

Silk fibroin/chitosan blend has been reported to be an attractive biomaterial that provides a 3D porous structure with controllable pore size and mechanical property suitable for tissue engineering applications. However, there is no systematic study for optimizing the ratio of silk fibroin (SF) and chitosan (CS) which seems to influence the scaffold property to a great extent. The present research, therefore, investigates the effect of blend ratio of SF and CS on scaffold property and establishes the optimum value of blend ratio. Among the various blends, the scaffolds with blend ratio of SF/CS (80:20) were found to be superior. The scaffold possesses pore size in the range 71–210 μm and porosity of 82.2 ± 1.3%. The compressive strength of the scaffold was measured as 190 ± 0.2 kPa. The cell supportive property of the scaffold in terms of cell attachment, cell viability, and proliferation was confirmed by cell culture study using mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. Furthermore, the assessment of glycosaminoglycan secretion on the scaffolds indicates its potentiality toward cartilage tissue regeneration.