Investigation and comparison of new galactosylation methods on PCL/chitosan scaffolds for enhanced liver tissue...

In liver tissue engineering, improving the ability of the scaffold to increase the tendency of cells to grow and proliferate is very important. In this study, new methods for modifying the surface of Polycaprolactone (PCL)/Chitosan (Cs) nanofiber for use in liver tissue engineering have been proposed. Galactosylation of chitosan was performed in three ways. According to the FE-SEM, FTIR, NMR and DSC analysis, presence of galactose in uniform nanofibers confirmed and led to a decrease in crystallinity. The hydrophobicity of the scaffolds by contact angle showed that the scaffold with galactosylated after electrospinning, had the highest contact angle of 82.22 ± 2° compared to raw scaffold with 98.52 ± 4°. According to the results of degradation in PBS, the highest rate of degradation was observed in scaffolds that were galactosylated after electrospinning. By culturing HepG2 cells on and based on the results of SEM and MTT analysis, found that the presence of galactose in the scaffolds significantly increased cell growth and proliferation without any toxicity. The immersion method shows a greater ability to improve the growth of liver cells. Also, using in-situ way due to the roughness created in this method may lead to better results especially for in-vivo tests.