Characterization and In vitro biocompatibility analysis of nanocellulose scaffold for tissue engineering application

Tissue engineering aims to exploit the regenerative capacity of cells and connect the inherent ability of the body to repair and regenerate. Cells are seeded onto a porous three-dimensional scaffold in tissue engineering, which will provide protection and direct cells to the development of new tissue-like structures. These scaffolds can provide a medium for the delivery, under controlled conditions of growth factors release and drug delivery. Herein, nanocellulose was extracted from Ixora coccinea L. plant root, plasticized scaffold of nanocellulose were prepared by using glycerol, gelatin, and PEG 600 followed by morphological characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, and tensile modulus analysis. FTIR indicated extracted nanocellulose is without any hemicelluloses, lignin, and non-cellulosic materials. XRD data displayed the extracted nanocellulose has a crystal size of around 3.6 nm while SEM data revealed the fiber diameter was around 20 µm. In the tensile modulus analysis, 1% PEG 600 exhibited the highest (tensile strength 69 MPa with young’s modulus 67.326 MPa) as compared to glycerol and gelatin and hence selected for further studies. The In vitro cytocompatibility studies revealed that nanocellulose and 1% PEG 600 incorporated nanocellulose scaffolds were cell-friendly, promote cell proliferation, and do not show RBC aggregation as well as haemolysis suggesting its potential in various tissue engineering applications. The novelty of this work is that the nanocellulose extracted from the root of I. coccineahas traditional medicinal values in Ayurveda.