Preliminary study on the adhesion and proliferation of human osteoblasts on starch-based scaffolds

Up to today, several techniques have been used to produce biodegradable porous scaffolds for tissue engineering. In this work, a new
technique based on extrusion by using blowing agents in combination with a 50:50 (wt.%) blend of starch/cellulose acetate (SCA) was
studied. The results show that by using this technique it was possible to obtain scaffolds with 70% of porosity and a fully interconnected
network of pores, with sizes ranging from 200 to 500 Am. After their production, the mechanical properties of these scaffolds were tested,
presenting a compressive modulus of 124.6F27.2 MPa and a compressive strength of 8.0F0.9 MPa. These values are within the best found
in the literature and show that by using this technique, it is possible to produce scaffolds that, from a mechanical standpoint, may be suitable
for bone tissue engineering. Cell culturing experiments showed that cells were viable and that there were no signs of cellular death after 3
weeks of culture. Finally, biochemical assays demonstrate that cells maintained the osteogenic phenotype throughout the experiment and
deposition of mineralized extracellular matrix could be detected