Synthesis and characterisation of gelatin/zeolite porous scaffold

Exploring the possibility of using zeolites in tissue engineering scaffolds is a potential approach in regenerative medicine because of their biocompatibility and cation exchange ability. A novel method to synthesize formaldehyde crosslinked gelatin/zeolite scaffolds by lyophilisation technique is reported in this paper. AFM images of gelatin solutions obtained before and after the addition of formaldehyde, revealed the coil to helix transformation of gelatin after crosslinking. The pore size of gelatin control scaffold was in the range of 50−750 μm while it was greatly reduced to 10−350 μm after incorporation of 0.5% zeolites in gelatin matrix, G(0.5%). Micro-CT analysis showed that porosity of G(0.5%) was 81% and the pores were well interconnected. The elemental analysis and crystallinity studies confirmed the presence of zeolites in G(0.5%). Interestingly, contact angle was found to increase from 88.6° to 108° with the increase in concentration of zeolites in gelatin. G(0.5%) showed the highest glass transition temperature (∼37 °C) as well as dynamic compression modulus (∼737 kPa). Swelling and degradation of scaffolds were tuned by adjusting concentration of zeolites in the composite scaffolds. All these results suggest that they can be further investigated for their application in tissue engineering.