Background: Bone regeneration is one of the main challenges of modern medicine. The conventional methods for bone repair commonly used included autografts and allografts. Tissue engineering is a promising approach to restore, regenerate, maintain and improve function of damaged tissues or cells using biomaterials. The bone scaffold must be manufactured to an arbitrary complex 3D shape.
Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize chitosan-based hydrogel scaffolds made of chitosan/alginate alone or chitosan/alginate/nano-hydroxyapatite fabricated using 3D printing and compared their efficacy on bone regeneration.
Materials & Methods: Chitosan-based nanocomposite hydrogel scaffolds were prepared and fabricated by 3D printing. Group I: chitosan/ alginate (control group) and group II: chitosan/ alginate/ nano-hydroxyapatite. Each of the two groups were characterized for in-vitro cytotoxicity, swelling kinetics, hydrolytic degradation, and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). Moreover, the ability of these hydrogel scaffolds to enhance bone regeneration in a rabbit model was performed after 8 weeks using histological analysis.
Results: Cell viability results showed no cytotoxicity in either blank (group I) or loaded scaffolds (group II) on fibroblast cells after culture for 24h, 48h & 72h. Group I exhibited higher swelling rate after 5 days. Also, it demonstrated higher degradation rate compared to group II after 28 days. Histological examination of CS/AlG revealed higher bone formation (34%) compared to the HAP loaded scaffolds (26%).
Conclusion: 3D printed custom-made porous CS/ALG and CS/ALG/HAP scaffolds showed good physical properties and bone regeneration. However, CS/ALG group showed enhanced bone formation compared HAP loaded scaffolds.