Development of a novel glucosamine/silk fibroin–chitosan blend porous scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering applications

Silk fibroin–chitosan blend is reported to be an attractive scaffold material for tissue engineering applications. In our earlier study, we developed a scaffold having an optimal silk fibroin–chitosan blend ratio of 80:20 and proved its potentiality for cartilage tissue engineering applications. Glucosamine is one of the major structural components of cartilage tissue. The present work investigates the effect of glucosamine components on the physicochemical and biocompatibility properties of this scaffold. To this end, varied amounts of glucosamine were added to silk fibroin–chitosan blend with the aim of improving various scaffold properties. The addition of glucosamine components did not show any significant change in physicochemical properties of silk fibroin–chitosan blend scaffolds. The composite scaffold showed an open pore structure with desired pore size and porosity. However, cell culture study using human mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood revealed an overall increase in cell supportive properties of glucosamine-added scaffolds. Cell viability, cell proliferation and glycosaminoglycan assays confirmed enhanced cell viability and proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells. Thus, this study demonstrated the beneficial effect of glucosamine on improving the cell supportive property of silk fibroin–chitosan blend scaffolds making it more potential for cartilage tissue regeneration. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the study of glucosamine-added silk fibroin–chitosan blend porous scaffolds seeded with mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.