Abstract

FEATURING AND ASSESSING THE APPLICABILITY OF SCAFFOLD BASED ON ALGINATE AND DEPOLYMERIZED CHITOSAN HYDROGEL FOR HELA CELL CULTURE PURPOSES

Claudiane Barbosa de Aguiar, Abraão Ítalo de Lima dos Santos, Paloma Lys de Medeiros and Rosa Valéria da Silva Amorim*

ABSTRACT

Molecular scaffolds are temporary support structures used to grow cells and tissues; they play key role in supplying factors associated with cell survival, proliferation and differentiation processes, and can be indicated as model for tumor cell culture purposes. The aims of the current study are to prepare and feature a scaffold based on alginate and depolymerized chitosan hydrogels, as well as to assess its biocompatibility to HeLa cell culture in vitro, in order to investigate its potential to be used as support model for tumor cell culture. The scaffold was produced based on using Chitosan and Alginate biopolymers at 1.5% concentration (each) and 2:1 ratio. The featuring procedure was carried out based on Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Subsequently, biocompatibility was assessed through adhesion assay conducted with HeLa cells. Based on FTIR, depolymerization did not change chitosan absorbance spectrum at 1,123 cm-1, which referred to carbon-carbon elongations; likewise, it did not change chitosan’s characteristic primary amide peaks or deacetylation degree. Scanning electron microscopy analysis has evidenced variations in samples’ pore population size, which ranged from 10 µm to 600 µm in the scaffold based on 1.5% depolymerized chitosan and 1.5% alginate (at 2:1 ratio, respectively). The analyzed parameter recorded satisfactory results in scanning electron microscopy assays, which enabled effective HeLa cells’ adhesion and proliferation in cell culture conducted in vitro, over the observation time (24, 48 and 72 hours).

Keywords: which enabled effective HeLa cells’ adhesion and proliferation in cell culture conducted in vitro, over the observation time (24, 48 and 72 hours).