Incorporation of chitosan nanoparticles into silk fibroin-based porous scaffolds: Chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells

Abstract

A silk fibroin-chondroitin sulfate-sodium alginate (SF-CHS-SA) porous scaffold containing chitosan nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated. The proliferation of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) was studied by SEM, fluorescent microscopy, alcian blue staining, dimethylmethylene blue assay, and real-time polymerization chain reaction. The results showed that incorporation of NPs into the scaffold improved compressive modulus (5.6 +/- 0.15 MPa). The amount of glycosaminoglycan expression of the ASCs was reached to 8.9 +/- 0.3 mu g/mL. The gene expressions of aggrecan, collagen II, and SOX9 of the ASCs were significantly improved. This study revealed that the prepared scaffold can be used as a substrate for cartilage tissue engineering.