Preparation of enhanced three-dimensional porous chitosan scaffolds by acetylation and aqueous extraction

Abstract

We have devised a method to prepare a 3-dimensional (3D) porous acetylated chitosan scaffold for use as a cell adhesion matrix in tissue engineering applications. The scaffold was prepared by molding a mixture of chitosan and gelatin (as porogen), then removing the uncomplexed porogen by aqueous extraction from the freeze-dried material prior to acetylation. The extent of chitosan acetylation according to the reaction time was observed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The differences between the aqueous-extracted and control phase-separated chitosan scaffolds in terms of pore morphology and interconnectivity were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), enzymatic degradation, and surface roughness tests. The fibroblast cell line NIH-3T3 was used to test relative cell affinities for the acetylated versus untreated (control) chitosan scaffolds. The acetylated 3D porous scaffolds showed high interconnectivity and improved biocompatibility properties. Thus, these scaffolds may be very useful for a variety of tissue engineering applications.