Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Investigations on Gelatin-Chitosan-Bioactive Glass (58s) Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Nowadays, finding a proper substitute for the damaged or lost tissue is still a crucial open problem for the clinical scientific research. The fundamental aspects of the bone resemble a natural composite which consists of a wide range of polymers and ceramics. Therefore, there is a large amount of effort put into combining a structure which could feature sufficient mechanical strength, good biocompatibility and acceptable rate of biodegradation as a bone scaffold. In this paper, gelatin and chitosan have been chosen to play a role as the polymer matrix and bioactive glass 58s as a ceramic phase to characterize a new composition. To create a spongy structure with differently-sized porosity, five samples of scaffolds with different proportions of bioactive glass have been synthesized in the laboratory, which was dried in a freeze dryer. The electron microscope scanning illustrates the size of porosities and also the amount of forming appetite in the scaffolds' surfaces. The porosities sizes are observed to have the approximate size of 160-377μm, which is qualified for angiogenesis and cell growth in the bone and makes the scaffold an ideal choice for bone substitution.