Biocompatibility and antioxidant activity of a novel carrageenan based injectable hydrogel scaffold incorporated with Cissus quadrangularis: an in vitro study

Abstract Background Over the past years, polysaccharide-based scaffolds have emerged as the most promising material for tissue engineering. In the present study, carrageenan, an injectable scaffold has been used owing to its advantage and superior property. Cissus quadrangularis, a natural agent was incorporated into the carrageenan scaffold. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the antioxidant activity and biocompatibility of this novel material. Methods The present in vitro study comprised of four study groups each constituting a sample of 15 with a total sample size of sixty (n = 60). The carrageenan hydrogel devoid of Cissus quadrangularis acted as the control group (Group-I). Based on the concentration of aqueous extract of Cissus quadrangularis (10% w/v, 20% w/v and 30% w/v) in carrageenan hydrogel, respective study groups namely II, III and IV were considered. Antioxidant activity was assessed using a 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay, whereas the biocompatibility test was performed using a brine shrimp lethality assay. The microstructure and surface morphology of the hydrogel samples containing different concentrations of Cissus quadrangularis aqueous extract was investigated using SEM. One-way ANOVA with the post hoc tukey test was performed using SPSS software v22. Results A significant difference (P