26th Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference SBEC 2010, April 30 - May 2, 2010, College Park, Maryland, USA

Abstract

Chitin, the most abundant polysaccharide in nature (in addition to cellulose and starch), is a long-chain structural polymer which can be found in the exoskeleton of crustaceans (such as crab, shrimp). Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide and deacetylated derivative of chitin. It is excellently biocompatible and biodegradable, cationic, can form insoluble complexes (similar to collagen), and can easily be fabricated into bulk porous scaffolds, films, and beads. Due to its ample versatility, chitosan has a multitude of biomedical applications in areas such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound healing, and bone/periodontal substitutes. Early experiments conducted with the aim of producing 3-D matrix chitosan scaffolds (organized and porous) proved to be quite challenging. As a result, a new scaffold composed of cotton and coated with chitosan was engineered; the cotton, serving as an organized and porous 3-D matrix, when combined with chitosan, serving as an environment for cell attachment and growth, could potentially be a highly used scaffold. Results showed that at a concentration of 2 wt%, cotton coated with low molecular weight chitosan provided better adhesive for cell attachment to the scaffold. On comparison, the low molecular weight scaffold allowed the attachment of more cells than the medium. The results from this test were then compared to a range obtained from a control test in order to measure its success. The range was attained by performing a negative control test with uncoated cotton (one extreme) and a positive control test with poly-lysine coated cotton (other extreme). In this paper, the developed protocol is briefly reviewed, the unique design of a device made solely for this project is discussed, the results from preliminary tests with the scaffolds are analyzed, and finally, a review of impending work to be done, questions yet to answered, and potential biomedical engineering applications of chito-cotton. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.