Evaluation of surface/interface-related physicochemical and microstructural properties of gelatin 3D scaffolds, and their influence on fibroblast growth and morphology.

This article present new insights in complex relation between surface- and interface-related physicochemical properties and microstructuring of three-dimensional (3D) gelatin scaffolds, being fabricated by simultaneous temperature-controlled freeze-thawing cycle and in situ cross-linking using variable conditions (pH) and molarity of carbodiimide reagents, on the seeding and growth of fibroblast cells with subsequent tracking of their spreading and morphology. Rarely populated cells with rounded morphology and small elongations are observed on negative charge-rich scaffold surface with a lower cross-linking degree (CD), and consequently higher molecular mobility and availability of cell-recognition sequences, in comparison with the prominently elongated and densely populated cells on a positively charged scaffold's surface with higher CD and low mobility. Surface microstructure effect was demonstrated by cell vacuolization and their pure intercommunication being present on scaffold's bottom side with smaller pores (25 ± 19 µm) and pore wall thickness (9 ± 5 µm), over the air-exposed side with twice bigger pores (56 ± 38 µm) and pore wall thicknesses (12 ± 6 µm). Strong correlations of CD (r(2) = 0.96) and local molecular mobility (r(2)  = -0.44) with pH and reagents molarity, as well as microstructure features being related to temperature gradient, imply on possibility to modulate scaffold's properties in a direction to guide cell viability and most likely its genotype development.