title: Thermal-crosslinked porous chitosan scaffolds for soft tissue engineering applications.
abstract: The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using a steam autoclave process for sterilization and simultaneously thermal-crosslinking of lyophilized chitosan scaffolds. This process is of great interest in biomaterial development due to its simplicity and low toxicity. The steam autoclave process had no significant effect on the average pore diameter (~70 μm) and overall porosity (>80%) of the resultant chitosan scaffolds, while the sterilized scaffolds possessed more homogenous pore size distribution. The sterilized chitosan scaffolds exhibited an enhanced compressive modulus (109.8 kPa) and comparable equilibrium swelling ratio (23.3). The resultant chitosan scaffolds could be used directly for in vitro cell culture without extra sterilization. The data of in vitro studies demonstrated that the scaffolds facilitated cell attachment and proliferation, indicating great potential for soft tissue engineering applications.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. chengdong.jicd@gmail.com
authors.forename: Chengdong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000494:pharmacology; D048271:Chitosan / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019245:Compressive Strength / Q000187:drug effects; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008970:Molecular Weight; D016062:Porosity; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013242:Sterilization; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D048271:Chitosan
keywords: Chitosan porous scaffolds; Soft tissue engineering; Steam sterilization; Thermal-crosslinking