Graphene oxide and montmorillonite enriched natural polymeric scaffold for bone tissue engineering

In this study, the synergistic effect of graphene oxide (GO) and Montmorillonite (MMT) additives on the chemical, physical, mechanical, and biological properties of chitosan-gelatin (CS-Gel) scaffolds samples were investigated. FT-IR, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and zeta potential analysis were used to investigate the accuracy of GO synthesis. Morphological studies of scaffold samples showed highly porous structure of all scaffold samples. The water absorption values of CS-Gel/GO and CS-Gel/GO/MMT samples were almost the same, but the highest value of water retention was observed for CS-Gel/GO scaffold. All scaffold samples showed the ability to form biomineral on the surface when exposed to SBF, although CS-Gel/GO/MMT scaffold had the best biomineralization ability. Considerable improvement in mechanical properties of scaffold samples were observed for CS-Gel/GO/MMT in comparison to CS-Gel scaffold, from 17.56 to 22.73 MPa for Young's modulus and from 0.14 to 0.2265 MPa for compressive strength. Protein adsorption of the scaffold was almost doubled in CS-Gel/GO/MMT samples compared to CS-Gel scaffold. Cell viability results indicated that none of the samples were cytotoxic and 30% of improvement in cell viability was observed for CS-Gel/GO/MMT scaffold in comparison to CS-Gel samples after 72 h of incubation.