New development of carbonate apatite-chitosan scaffold based on lyophilization technique for bone tissue engineering

Carbonate apatite-chitosan scaffolds (CA-ChSs) were fabricated using the lyophilization technique. It was found that ChSs prepared with 200 mg chitosan powder (ChSs₂₀₀) had well-structured three-dimensional architecture with high porosity and good retentive form without brittleness. In addition, it was shown that the number of osteoblast-like cells MC3T3-E1 proliferated on desalinated ChSs₂₀₀ was larger than that on the non-desalinated ChSs₂₀₀. CA-ChSs were fabricated by adding 100 mg carbonate apatite (CA) to 200 mg chitosan gels followed by freeze-drying (CA₁₀₀ChSs₂₀₀). SEM observation revealed that CA₁₀₀ChSs₂₀₀ had favorable threedimensional porous structures. The number of living cells increased more rapidly on CA₁₀₀ChSs₂₀₀ prepared with different amounts of CA than on ChSs. ALP activity significantly increased after day 14 and reached a plateau after day 21 in ChSs₂₀₀ and CA₁₀₀ChSs₂₀₀. It was concluded that newly developed CA₁₀₀ChSs₂₀₀ may be a possible scaffold material for tissue engineering.