9 research outputs found
Influence of porosity and fibre diameter on the degradation of chitosan fibre-mesh scaffolds and cell adhesion
The state of the art approaches for tailoring the
degradation of chitosan scaffolds are based on altering the
chemical structure of the polymer. Nevertheless, such alterations
may lead to changes in other properties of scaffolds,
such as the ability to promote cell adhesion. The aim of this
study was to investigate the influence of physical parameters
such as porosity and fibre diameter on the degradation
of chitosan fibre-mesh scaffolds, as a possible way of tailoring
the degradation of such scaffolds. Four sets of scaffolds
with distinct fibre diameter and porosity were produced and
their response to degradation and cell adhesion was studied.
The degradation study was carried out at 37"C in a lysozyme
solution for five weeks. The extent of degradation was expressed
as percentage of weight loss of the dried scaffolds after
lysozyme treatment. Cell adhesion was assessed by Confocal
Microscopy. The results have shown that the scaffolds
with higher porosity degrade faster and that, within the same
range of porosity, the fibres with smaller diameter degrade
slightly faster. Furthermore, the morphological differences
between the scaffolds did not affect the degree of cell adhesion,
and the cells were observed throughout the thickness of
all four types of scaffold