Fabrication and characterization of chitosan based collagen/ gelatin composite scaffolds from big eye snapper Priacanthus hamrur skin for antimicrobial and anti oxidant applications.

In this study, for developing a scaffold for tissue engineering from fish processing wastes, a hierachial collagen/gelatin/chitosan novel porous scaffold was fabricated using blends of collagen and gelatin extracted from the skins of Marine big eye snapper Priacanthus humrur. Scaffolds were developed by mechanical spinning of chitosan and by mixing of collagen and gelatin solutions followed by freeze drying and subsequent crosslinking of polymers. The scaffolds were evaluated for rheological properties - porosity, apparent density and swelling capacity to assess their mechanical property.Gelatin/chitosan composition shown very high porosity(81.02%) and incorporation of collagen shown higher density in Collagen/gelatin/chitosan scaffolds (0.0522g/cm ³ ) and collagen/chitosan scaffolds (0.0468 g/cm ³ ).Morphology of the prepared scaffolds were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy which showed reduced pore size of 10 to 20μ in Collagen/gelatin/Chitosan composite, 5 to 10μ in gelatin/chitosan composites and 2-5μ in collagen/chitosan composites. FTIR analysis showed intense peaks ranging 1120 -11267 cm ^-1 in the three different scaffolds that are denoted as CH groups. In-vitro antioxidant investigation through DPPH assay showed that the composite 3 in 1 mg/ml concentration exhibited higher antioxidant potential (70%). In contrast, ABTS scavenging assay identified composite1 in 1 mg/ml had good antioxidant activity with highest percentage of inhibition (29.5%). The scaffolds were also evaluated for anti microbial properties through disc diffusion assay. The results showed maximum inhibition- 14 mm, 12 mm and 14 mm for 200 μg of the sample for collagen/chitosan, gelatin/chitosan and collagen/gelatin/chitosan scaffolds respectively towards E.Coli and 20 mm, 20 mm and 24 mm towards S.aureus. The zone of inhibition against E. coli and S. aureus for the three scaffolds was comparatively lower and that could be due to the presence of chitosan. The findings of the study indicates that the bioscaffolds are expected to have wide application in tissue engineering.
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