Evaluation of Extracted β-chitosan From Loligo duvauceli for the Preparation of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

Over the years, there has been a growing need for producing cost effective, porous scaffold biomaterials for tissue engineering. Therefore, this study focused on fabrication of beta-chitosan based scaffold from the waste of the pen of locally available squid variety Loligo duvauceli (Indian Squid). The scaffold was prepared by the solvent casting method which requires less time and minimum energy. To the best of our knowledge,there are no reports on scaffold preparation from the extracted beta-chitosan. The biological properties of extracted chitosan scaffolds C(L) were evaluated and compared with those of commercial chitosan scaffold C(S). The prepared scaffolds were characterized by SEM, swelling property, in vitro enzymatic degradation, and hemo, biocompatibility properties. C(L) scaffolds had an average pore size of 60 A mu m and the swelling ratio was 16.2 +/- 2.2% with mass loss percentage of 20.8 +/- 4.5% after 4 weeks of degradation. It has exhibited good hemocompatible properties and thermal stability. Mouse fibroblast 3T3 cells were able to adhere and proliferate well in the extracted beta-chitosan C(L) scaffold. All these results indicated that extracted beta-chitosan C(L) is a suitable alternative for biomaterials used for tissue engineering purposes.