Methods: Acemannan, a polysaccharide extracted from Aloe vera gel, were constructed into a sponge scaffold by chemical-crosslinked method. Adipic acid and CDI were employed as a crosslinker and a coupling agent, respectively. The three dimensional porous structure was created by the salt leaching method. The porous sponge was obtained after freeze-dried. The degree of cross-linking and surface morphology were examined by quantitative infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope, respectively. The swelling rate and in vitro degradation were determined by the ratio of weight changes. For biocompatibility test, the specimens were seeded with osteoprogenitor cell line ST2. After 3 days of incubation, the cell viability was examined by biochemical assay of Presto BlueTM. To investigate cell attachment to scaffold construction, immunofluoresences and confocal microscopy were used.
Results: The amounts of adipic acid significantly affected on the degree of crosslinked, the swelling rate and in vitro degradation. The biochemical assay and confocal microscope demonstrated that acemannan sponges exhibited well biocompatibility to ST2 cell.
Conclusions: The data suggest that adipic acid could be used as crosslinker for acemannan sponges. This acemannan sponge is biocompatibility to ST2 cell at 72 hours.