Fabrication of porous chitosan scaffold in order to improve biocompatibility

This study is to develop a novel method for fabrication of the chitosan scaffold to improve its biocompatibility, based on a thermally induced phase separation technique. The porous scaffolds were basically fabricated by solid-liquid separation and subsequent sublimation of solvent. The effect of addition of n-butanol, as non-solvent, into aqueous chitosan solution on pore formation of chitosan scaffold was estimated. The pore diameters of chitosan scaffolds could be controlled within the range 4-100 mu m by adjusting the ratio of n-butanol concentration. The interconnectivities between pores over resulting chitosan scaffolds were improved without any surface skin layer, compared to control scaffold. We performed further examination of the changes in the biocompatibility of the chitosan scaffold on human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) after the addition of non-solvent by evaluating the initial cell binding capacity and cell growth rate. The initial cell adhesion on the new prepared chitosan scaffold was 190% higher than that on control chitosan scaffold, without adding non-solvent. The proliferation rate of HDFs in the new prepared scaffold was increased 1.82 folds than that of control chitosan scaffold, after 3 days of culture. The new prepared chitosan scaffold had the specific surface area enough for cell attachment and tissue ingrowth. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.