Crosslinked porous three-dimensional cellulose nanofibers-gelatine biocomposite scaffolds for tissue regeneration

Abstract Gelatine is a biocompatible and natural polymer with chemical properties similar to the extracellular matrix. However, it has poor mechanical properties and sensitive to enzymatic biodegradation that limits its application in 3D scaffold fabrication. Cellulose nanofibrous (CNF) offers biocompatibility, high surface area and excellent mechanical properties with slow in-vivo degradation. To fine tune their properties, CNF, and gelatine (CNF-GEL) were blended to form biocomposite aerogels. Epichlorohydrin (EPH) was incorporated into CNF-GEL as a chemical crosslinker to investigate its effect on the physiochemical, mechanical, and biological properties of the biocomposite aerogels both in-vitro and in-vivo. Regardless of the composition of the prepared aerogels, they possessed porosity of >90% with the pore size of 7–135 μm, which was confirmed in the morphological analysis. The presence of EPH improved the chemical interaction between CNF and gelatine, hence enhanced the compressive strength compared to uncrosslinked samples. The formulation of crosslinked CNF-GEL 90:10 offered the highest compressive strength (61.35 ± 0.72 kPa). The in-vitro and in-vivo studies showed adequate cytocompatibility, cell viability and cell attachment in the optimal crosslinked formulation with tuned enzymatic degradation. Antimicrobial property was also achieved in the optimal scaffold by incorporating curcumin as an antimicrobial agent.