Influence of porosity and fibre diameter on the degradation of chitosan fibre-mesh scaffolds and cell adhesion

The state of the art approaches for tailoring the degradation of chitosan scaffolds are based on altering the chemical structure of the polymer. Nevertheless, such alterations may lead to changes in other properties of scaffolds, such as the ability to promote cell adhesion. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of physical parameters such as porosity and fibre diameter on the degradation of chitosan fibre-mesh scaffolds, as a possible way of tailoring the degradation of such scaffolds. Four sets of scaffolds with distinct fibre diameter and porosity were produced and their response to degradation and cell adhesion was studied. The degradation study was carried out at 37 degrees C in a lysozyme solution for five weeks. The extent of degradation was expressed as percentage of weight loss of the dried scaffolds after lysozyme treatment. Cell adhesion was assessed by Confocal Microscopy. The results have shown that the scaffolds with higher porosity degrade faster and that, within the same range of porosity, the fibres with smaller diameter degrade slightly faster. Furthermore, the morphological differences between the scaffolds did not affect the degree of cell adhesion, and the cells were observed throughout the thickness of all four types of scaffolds.