Development of Alginate-Chitosan-Collagen Based Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

In the recent times, significant development has been achieved in the tissue engineering field using alginate and chitosan. Moreover, hydrogels of these successful macromolecules contribute enormously towards the development of novel biomedical materials. The present paper depicts the preparation and analysis of different kinds of hydrogels using the combination of alginate, chitosan, chitooligosacchrides and collagen (alginate-chitosan-cos-collagen), and also tested in vitro with human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cells for considering these composites as skin tissue substitute. Furthermore, the prepared hydrogels are chemically characterized, where the total porosity of the scaffold is found to be >90% with 33-500 mu m of pore size. The newly developed scaffolds through freeze-drying method showed excellent biocompatibility, cell adhesion and proliferation with HaCaT cells. Addition of collagen, alginate with chitosan hydrogel further improved the biocompatible nature that mimics the functional environment of skin.