In vitro tissue engineering requires a progenitor cell source and a porous scaffold providing three dimensional (3D) supports for growth and differentiation to attain tissue architectures. This research focused on fabrication and characterization of 3D porous scaffolds using chitosan (CS), collagen (CG) and chitosan-collagen (CS-CG) composite to investigate their influence on human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. Material dependent variations in porous morphology and mechanical behavior of the fabricated CS, CG and CS-CG scaffold showed significant impact on hMSC adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. The maximum hMSC adhesion and proliferation was reported on CS-CG scaffold among all fabricated scaffold groups. Interconnectivity of pores structure in CS-CG scaffold was considered as preferable attribute for such enhanced growth and distribution throughout the scaffold. Besides, CS scaffold with well interconnected pores showed poor adhesion and proliferation because of inadequate adhesion motifs. In case of CG scaffold, optimum growth and distribution of hMSC occurs only at the surface because of the absence of interconnectivity in their pore structures. Likewise, osteogenic differentiation of hMSC occurs most preferably in CS-CG composite scaffold among all scaffold groups. Such enhanced hMSC proliferation and differentiation in CS-CG scaffold significantly influenced on mechanical behavior of scaffold which is essential for in vivo application of a bone tissue implant. Thus CS-CG composite scaffold holds promise to be a suitable platform for in vitro engineering of bone tissue implant.

中文翻译：

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人间充质干细胞在壳聚糖/胶原蛋白复合支架上的粘附，增殖和分化。

体外组织工程需要祖细胞源和多孔支架，以提供用于生长和分化的三维（3D）支持，以实现组织结构。这项研究致力于使用壳聚糖（CS），胶原蛋白（CG）和壳聚糖-胶原蛋白（CS-CG）复合材料制造和表征3D多孔支架，以研究它们对人间充质干细胞（hMSC）粘附，增殖和分化的影响。制成的CS，CG和CS-CG支架的多孔形态和机械行为的材料依赖性变化显示出对hMSC粘附，增殖和分化的显着影响。据报道，在所有预制支架组中，CS-CG支架均具有最大的hMSC粘附和增殖。CS-CG支架中孔结构的互连性被认为是这种增强的生长和在整个支架中分布的优选属性。此外，由于粘附基序不足，具有良好相互连通的孔的CS支架表现出较差的粘附性和增殖性。在CG支架的情况下，hMSC的最佳生长和分布仅在表面发生，因为其孔结构中没有相互连接。同样，hMSC的成骨分化最优选发生在所有支架组中的CS-CG复合支架中。CS-CG支架中此类增强的hMSC增殖和分化显着影响了支架的机械行为，这对于体内应用骨组织植入物必不可少。