A study on growth of bovine chondrocytes on silk fibroin/ chitosan electrospun nanofibers scaffold

The aim of this study was to investigate the bovine chondrocytes growth on new polymeric nanofibers silk fibroin/kitosan scaffolds, designed by authors, to form the cartilage tissue. Material and Methods: The chondrocyte cells isolated from three calf articular cartilage were loaded on the scaffold. After a monthof incubation, cells morphology was studied by SEM and the rate of cell growth by H&E and DAPI staining. To assay chondrogenesis in the culture, production of collagene was assayed by masson’s trichrom staining and formation of Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and Proteoglycan was assayed by DMMB and “safranin O” staining. The results showed that the cells attached and proliferated to scaffolds very well. The number of cultured cells after one month proliferated by 4 to 5 times. Masson’s trichrom, safranin O staining and GAG assay showed cartilage tissue production in the scaffolds. According to the results, the scaffold of nanofibers Fibroin silk / chitosan could be a good scaffold candidate for cartilage tissue engineering. This is due to the nature of the proteins in silk fibroin and polysaccharides in chitosan for cellular attachment and also the diameter close to the diameter of extracellular matrix proteins in these scaffolds.