Scaffolds from medical grade chitosan: A good choice for 3D cultivation of mesenchymal stem cells

Chitosan has high biocompatibility, supports proliferation of many cells, and can be a good carrier for various growth factors. However, low attachment ratio and spheroid formation of several stem cell types on plain chitosan scaffolds/films is still a problem. In this study, it was aimed to obtain 3D scaffolds using medical grade chitosan (MC) with a high deacetylation degree (DD ≥ 92.6%) to overcome the spheroid formation of rat adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells (rAdMSCs) on control chitosan (C, DD = 75%–85%) scaffolds. Genipin was used as a biological chemical crosslinker, and glycerol phosphate salt was used both as a pH adjusting agent and physical crosslinker. MTT and SEM analyses and live/dead staining indicated the increase in the attachment, cell viability, and proliferation of rAdMSCs on MC scaffolds with or without crosslinking when compared to the cells in spheroid formation on control scaffolds. Moreover, filamentous actin protein organization of rAdMSCs was found to be triggered on the crosslinked MC scaffolds. In conclusion, plain medical grade chitosan scaffolds with or without crosslinking prevented spheroid formation, supported the attachment, proliferation, and organization of rAdMSCs indicating that medical grade type of chitosan scaffolds with high DD can be a very good candidate as 3D carriers in stem cell cultivation.