Investigation of fabrication and synthesis of kappa-carrageenan scaffold for bone tissue engineering

IntroductionCarrageenan, a naturally occurring polysaccharide shows interesting properties for bone tissueengineering application mainly due to its gelling abilities and resemblance to glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), main components of the ECM of biological systems. Their linear primary structure is based on alternating copolymers of 1,3-linked -D-galactose and 1,4-linked R-D-galactose, with varying degrees of sulfatation.objectiveThe objective of this study was the fabrication and characterization of new scaffolds from kappa carrageenan (k-CG) with appropriate pore size and porosity for bone tissue engineering.MethodsThree-dimensional (3D) scaffold were fabricated by adding k-CG powder to deionized water as a solution, followed by freeze-drying. Various characterization techniques were applied to analyze the properties of the obtained scaffolds such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that was used to observe the internal morphology of the fabricated scaffolds. Moreover, the mean pores size and porosity percentage were measured using image J software.ResultsThe results indicated to the formation of large pores in the range of 100-200 μm and porosity percentages in the range of 65-75%. Soaking the matrixes in simulated body fluid (SBF) solution during 14 days showed deposition of calcium and phosphate (Ca-P) on the surface of scaffolds.Various techniques such as (XRD) were used to assess the Precipitation of Ca-P on the surfaces. The biocompatibility evaluation of fabricated scaffolds was done using indirect MTT assay and the results indicated no toxicity effects on cultured MG 63 osteoblast-like cells. In addition, the MG 63 osteoblast-like cells exhibited good adhesion behavior in direct contact and finally cell attachment as was observed by SEM images.

Keywords:

Natural polymer , Calcium phosphate , Kappa-carrageenan , Bone tissue engineering.