Fabrication the biomaterial scaffold for tissue engineering by freeze-drying technique

Abstract

The alternative approach for therapy degenerative disease is tissue engineering using the biocompatible scaffold to facilitate cell growth and proliferation. The materials chosen for fabrication the scaffold are the key to successful tissue engineering applications. The objective of this study was to fabricate the biomaterial scaffold via freeze-drying method. In the current work, chitosan was extracted from shrimp shells and then combined with agarose and collagen type I in different concentrations to optimize the most desirable scaffold. The microstructure of the scaffold was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The average pore size of the scaffold was determined by the ImageJ software. Physical functional as well as water uptake ability and degradation rate were also evaluated. MTT assay was carried out to determine the viability of normal human fibroblast on the scaffold. The histological structure of the cell-scaffold was determined using H&E staining. The freeze-drying technique could produce a sponge-like biocomposite scaffold. The optimum ratio of agarose-chitosan-collagen type I was found to be 3:2:0.5. The synthesized scaffold consisted of an interconnected porous structure with a pore size diameter around 179.92 micron and 87% water uptake ability. In addition, the degradation rate of the biomaterial scaffold after 4 weeks was only 4%. Moreover, the cell proliferation was observed by culturing fibroblast on the scaffold for 3 weeks, which indicate their biocompatibility to human fibroblast. This study indicates the potential of biomaterial scaffold for tissue engineering. Especially, the use of shrimp shells which are garbage to extract chitosan and useful as a scaffold for applications in tissue engineering.

Key words: scaffold, biomaterial, tissue engineering, freeze-drying technique