Fabrication of chitin/poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) hydrogel scaffold

Regeneration of skin after a large area wound or burn is often difficult without the aid of a scaffold. In this work we developed a 3D macroporous chitin/poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) hydrogel blend by normal solution chemistry and lyophilized it to get the scaffold. The developed scaffold was then characterized and it showed a slow degrading as well as biocompatible nature. The blend hydrogel scaffold showed 67% porosity and the pore size was less than 20 μm. Cytocompatibility of the scaffold was proved by Alamar blue assay using Human Dermal Fibroblast cells (HDF). The blend hydrogel scaffold showed a two fold increase in cell number over control within three days of culture. The chitin/PHBV blend also showed enhanced HDF cell attachment and proliferation. These preliminary results prove its suitability for scaffold based skin tissue regeneration.