Biocompatible conducting chitosan/polypyrrole-alginate composite scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

A polypyrrole based conducting scaffold was developed by incorporating polypyrrole-alginate (PPy-Alg) blend with chitosan using lyophilization technique and employed this composite as a substrate for bone tissue engineering. PPy-Alg blend was developed by oxidative chemical synthesis of polypyrrole using FeCl3 as oxidizing agent and characterized. The physiochemical characterization of the scaffold was done using SEM, FT-IR along with porosity measurement, swelling and in vitro degradation studies. Surface conductivity of the scaffolds was analyzed using Scanning Electrochemical microscopy (SECM). Results from cell viability and cell proliferation with MG-63 cells using Alamar blue assay confirmed the cytocompatible nature of the developed scaffold. In vitro biomineralization ability of the scaffold was assessed and thus the effectiveness of PPy-Alg/chitosan scaffold in the field of tissue engineering was evaluated.