Chitosan as a potential alternative to collagen for the development of genipin-crosslinked scaffolds

摘要

Tissue Engineering emerged as a research field to solve problems derived from the loss of tissue and organ failure, specifically through the development of scaffolds. In this work, scaffolds were manufactured using collagen and chitosan as raw materials, evaluating the potential use of the latter as a substitute for collagen. Throughout this work, different proportions of these raw materials were used, and the influence of genipin (crosslinking agent) was evaluated, studying the variations in the mechanical and morphological properties of the scaffolds. The results obtained show that the properties of the scaffolds were strongly dependent on the biopolymer concentration used and on the concentrations of crosslinking agent. According to the results, the best mechanical properties were obtained for hybrid systems with high biopolymer concentrations (2 wt%), especially chitosan. Furthermore, the addition of a small amount of crosslinking agent (genipin) improved low biopolymer concentration systems (1 wt%), showing an improvement in the critical strain.