Influence of varying concentrations of chitosan coating on the pore wall of polycaprolactone based porous scaffolds for tissue engineering application.

• Novel method for scaffold preparation has been adopted. • Chitosan as a bio activators was coated on the pore wall of the polycaprolactone three-dimensional scaffolds. • Porosity and mechanical strength of the scaffolds shows the encouraging results. • Cell attachment & morphology, cytotoxicity, hemocompatibility shows the bio-compatibility of the fabricated scaffolds. • The osteoblast differentiation of chitosan 2.5 % proven to be superior in all the groups and makes it an adequate candidate for bone regeneration. The study's purpose was to fabricate a 3-D porous scaffold, in which chitosan was coated onto the pore wall of polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds as a bioactive agent to maximize the cell recognition signals, to improve the osteoconductivity of the scaffolds. The pppporogen leaching technique has been modified and used in the fabrication process, comprising of the coating of chitosan over the porogen followed by transferring of coating to the pore wall of the PCL scaffold. The cytotoxicity and hemolysis results indicated chitosan's presence over the surface of the scaffold's pore walls has significantly enhanced its biocompatibility. Scaffolds coated with 2.5 %(w/v) chitosan shows 6.74 % increase in porosity and 207.96 % upsurge in mechanical strength, compared to PCL scaffolds. The Gene-expression also proves the study groups of scaffolds show the minimal osteogenic expression. Therefore, chitosan coating over the scaffold's pore wall's surface opens an unconventional approach for tissue engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]