Green synthesis of a new gelatin-based antimicrobial scaffold for tissue engineering

With the aim of developing appropriate scaffolds for tissue engineering to suppress the formation of biofilms, an effective one-pot process was applied in this study to produce scaffolds with inherent antibacterial activity. A new method to synthesize genipin-crosslinked gelatin/nanosilver scaffolds with “green” in situ formation of silver nanoparticles by heat treatment is presented in this paper. In this procedure, toxic solvents, reducing agents, and stabilizing agents are avoided. UV–visible absorption spectra of the synthesized gelatin/nanosilver solutions were obtained immediately and three months after the synthesis revealing the presence and high stability of the silver nanoparticles. The TEM of gelatin/nanosilver solutions showed silver particles with spherical shapes that were less than 5 nm in size. Interestingly, contact angle was found to increase from 80° to 125° with the increase in concentration of nanosilver in gelatin. All gelatin/nanosilver solutions showed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. However, only the highest concentration showed antifungal effects against Candida albicans pathogens. Scaffolds were prepared by a lyophilization technique from this solution and their antimicrobial activities were examined. Introducing this facile green one-pot process of synthesizing scaffolds with antimicrobial and anti-biofilm properties may lead to key applications in tissue engineering techniques.