Fabrication of gelatin-hyaluronic acid hybrid scaffolds with tunable porous structures for soft tissue engineering.

The development of three-dimensional (3-D) scaffolds with highly open porous structure is one of the most important issues in tissue engineering. In this study, 3-D macroporous gelatin/hyaluronic acid (GE/HA) hybrid scaffolds with varying porous morphology were prepared by freeze-drying their blending solutions and subsequent chemical crosslinking by using 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC). The resulting scaffolds were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Their swelling, in vitro degradation properties and compressive strength were also investigated. To evaluate in vitro cytocompatibility of scaffolds, mouse L929 fibroblasts were seeded onto the scaffolds for cell morphology and cell viability studies. It was found that the porous structure of scaffolds can be tailored by varying the ratios of gelatin to HA, both the swelling ratios and degradation rate increased with the increase of HA content in hybrid scaffolds, and crosslinking the scaffolds with EDC improved the degradation resistance of the scaffold in culture media and increased the mechanical strength of scaffolds. The in vitro results revealed that the prepared scaffolds do not induce cytotoxic effects and suitable for cell growth, especially in the case of scaffolds with higher gelatin content. The combined results of the physicochemical and biological studies suggested that the developed GE/HA hybrid scaffolds exhibit good potential and biocompatibility for soft tissue engineering applications.