Preparation and characterization of Chitosan and PLGA‐based scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

Three dimensional (3D) biodegradable porous scaffolds play a crucial role in bone tissue repair. In this study, four types of 3D polymer/hydroxyapatite (HAp) composite scaffolds were prepared by freeze drying technique in order to mimic the organic/inorganic nature of the bone. Chitosan (CH) and poly(lactic acid‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) were used as the polymeric part and HAp as the inorganic component. Properties of the resultant scaffolds, such as morphology, porosity, degradation, water uptake, mechanical and thermal stabilities were examined. 3D scaffolds having interconnected macroporous structure and 77–89% porosity were produced. The pore diameters were in the range of 6 and 200 µm. PLGA and HAp containing scaffolds had the highest compressive modulus. PLGA maintained the strength by decreasing water uptake but increased the degradation rate. Scaffolds seeded with SaOs‐2 osteoblast cells showed that all scaffolds were capable of encouraging cell adhesion and proliferation. The presence of HAp particles caused an increase in cell number on CH‐HAp scaffolds compared to CH scaffolds, while cell number decreased when PLGA was incorporated in the structure. CH‐PLGA scaffolds showed highest cell number on days 7 and 14 compared to others. Based on the properties such as interconnected porosity, high mechanical strength, and in vitro cell proliferation, blend scaffolds have the potential to be applied in hard tissue treatments. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:1917–1930, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers