Effects of PLGA/Fibrin scaffolds on attachment and proliferation of costal cartilage cells

Poly(lactide-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) has been widely used in the drug delivery and tissue engineering applications because of its good mechanical strength and biodégradation profile. However, cell attachment to the scaffold is low compared with that on fibrin although cells can be attached to the polymer surface. In this study, PLGA scaffolds were soaked in cells-fibrin suspension and polymerized with dropping fibrinogen-thrombin solution. Cellular proliferation activity was observed in PLGA/fibrin-seeded costal cartilage cells (CC) on 1,3, and 7 days using the MTT assay and SEM. The effects of fibrin on the extracellular matrix (ECM) formation were evaluated using CC cell-seeded PLGA/ fibrin scaffolds. The PLGA/fibrin scaffolds elicited more production of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and collagen than the PLGA scaffold. In this study, fibrin incorporated PLGA scaffolds were prepared to evaluate the effects of fibrin on the cell attachment and proliferation in vitro and in vivo. In this result, we confirmed that proliferation of cells in PLGA/fibrin scaffolds were better than in PLGA scaffolds. The PLGA/fibrin scaffolds provide suitable environment for growth and proliferation of costal cartilage cells.