Laser Patterning of Bacterial Cellulose Hydrogel and its Modification With Gelatin and Hydroxyapatite for Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is considered a promising and cost-efficient nanoscaffold for tissue engineering; however, the absence of large pores for cell ingrowth and enough biological properties restricts its practical use as tissue engineering scaffold. In this work, a novel porous BC membrane with regular vertical pore arrays was obtained via laser patterning technique. Then, this porous BC membrane was modified with gelatin (Gel) and hydroxyapatite (HAp), respectively, to enhance its activity. After the modification, thin Gel and HAp coatings formed on the surfaces of nanofibers in the pore wall, which had no influence on the original refined network structures. In order to review the cytocompatibility of the obtained scaffolds, chondrogenic rat cells were seeded on scaffolds. The results showed that chondrogenic rat cell could keep viability on scaffolds, and the scaffolds support chondrogenic rat cell attachment and proliferation.

Keywords:

• Bacterial cellulose
• Chondrogenic cell
• Gelatin
• Hydroxyapatite
• Laser patterning

Acknowledgments

Wang Jing and Yang Chunxi contributed equally to this work.

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program (973 Program) (Grant no. 2007CB936101) and the Fund for Key Disciplines of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (J50206).