Scaffolds made of nanostructured phosphates, collagen and chitosan for cell culture

In the present study a new strategy of synthesis was developed for nanostructured calcium phosphates, such as hydroxyapatite (HAP) or silicon, magnesium and zinc modified hydroxyapatites of controlled characteristics (such as the shape and size of nanoparticles, porosity and crystallinity) by precipitation reactions. These inorganic powders were jointly used with chitosan (CHI) and collagen type I (COL) to manufacture fibrous biocomposite scaffolds made of self-assembled layers by using layer by layer technique for cell cultures. The resulting materials were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, SEM, TEM and AFM. This work also reports the structural data obtained on the surface of the newly prepared nanostructured porous scaffolds made of self-assembled nanoHAP–Si(0.2%)–Mg(0.6%)–Zn(0.2%)/CHI/COL layers at 7 days in human osteoblastic cell culture. A new porous structure was found by SEM imaging on the surface of these scaffolds due to the cells and scaffold interactions. This structure is apparently similar to the bone tissue. Our data have indicated that the incorporation of small amounts of silicon, magnesium and zinc within the nanoHAP lattice improved the biological activity of human osteoblasts on these scaffolds, in vitro. The data have revealed the high importance of HAP nanostructure and its composition in the preparation of fibrous scaffolds with potential applications in particle technology, bone tissue engineering and nano medicine.