Despite
the
increasing
attention
that
marine
organisms
are
receiving,
many
of
those
are
not
efficiently
exploited
and
subproducts
with
valuable
compounds
are
being
discarded.
Two
examples
of
those
subproducts
are
the
endoskeleton
of
squid,
from
which
β-‐chitin
and
consecutively
chitosan
can
be
obtained;
and
fish-‐bones,
as
a
source
for
the
production
of
nano-‐
hydroxyapatite.
In
this
work,
inspired
in
the
nanocomposite
structure
of
human
bone,
marine-‐
based
nanocomposite
scaffolds
composed
by
chitosan
and
nano-‐hydroxyapatite
(nHA)
were
developed
using
particle
aggregation
methodology.
Chitosan
was
obtained
from
endoskeleton
of
giant
squid
Dosidicus
Gigas
while
fish
hydroxyapatite
nanoparticles
were
synthesized
from
fish-‐bones
by
pulsed
laser
in
deionized
water.
An
innovative
methodology
was
used
based
on
the
agglomeration
of
prefabricated
microspheres
of
chitosan/nHA,
generally
based
on
the
random
packing
of
microspheres
with
further
aggregation
by
physical
or
thermal
means
to
create
a
marine
nanocomposite
(CHA)
.The
morphological
analysis
of
the
developed
nanocomposites
revealed
a
low
porosity
structure,
but
with
high
interconnectivity,
for
all
produced
scaffolds.
Furthermore,
the
nanocomposite
scaffolds
were
characterized
in
terms
of
their
mechanical
properties,
bioactivity,
crystallinity
and
biological
behavior.
The
obtained
results
highlight
that
the
chitosan/nHA-‐based
marine
nanocomposite
can
be
a
good
candidate
for
biomedical
applications,
namely
on
bone
regeneration
