An injectable chitosan-based hydrogel scaffold containing gold nanoparticles for tissue engineering applications.

Scaffolds of tissue engineering for particular sites, for example, nerve, cardiac, and bone tissues, require a comprehensive design of 3D biomaterials that covers all aspects of physical structures and chemical composition, needed for desired cell regeneration. Injectable and in situ forming hydrogel scaffolds, possessing highly hydrated and interconnected structures, have demonstrated several advantages for use in regenerative medicine. In this study, we have developed a new design of injectable hydrogels based on collagen, aldehyde modified-nanocrystalline cellulose, and chitosan loaded with gold nanoparticles (Collagen/ADH-CNCs/CS-Au). The results of experiments exposed that the various molar ratios of Collagen/CNCs and the presence of CS-Au content have a significant effect on the microscopic morphology, equilibrium swelling, in vitro degradation, and mechanical properties of the hydrogels. The cytotoxicity analysis was performed for the NIH 3T3 cell line, which displays the effectiveness and non-toxicity of the developed hydrogels towards the destruction of the cells. The achieved results suggested that the prepared hydrogel network has great potential as a new biomaterial for tissue engineering applications.