Investigation of Biodegradation and Biocompatibility of Chitosan-Bacterial Cellulose Composite Scaffold for Bone Tissue Engineering Applications

Developing scaffolds with a three-dimensional porous structure and adequate mechanical properties remains a key challenge in tissue engineering of bone. These scaffolds must be biocompatible and biodegradable to effectively support osteoblastic cell attachment, proliferation, and differentiation. This study successfully fabricated a chitosan-bacterial cellulose (CS-BC) composite scaffold using the solvent casting/particle leaching (SCPL) technique, with NaOH/urea solution as the solvent and sodium chloride crystals as the porogen. The scaffold exhibited a well-distributed porous network with pore sizes ranging from 300 to 500 µm. Biodegradation tests in PBS containing lysozyme revealed a continuous degradation process, while in vitro studies with pre-osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells demonstrated excellent cell attachment, as observed through SEM imaging. The scaffold also promoted cell proliferation, as indicated by increased OD values in the MTT assay, and enhanced ALP activity and upregulated expression of osteogenic-related genes. These findings suggest that the CS-BC composite scaffold, fabricated using the SCPL method, holds great potential as a candidate for bone tissue engineering applications.