Comparative study of silk fibroin porous scaffolds derived from salt/water and sucrose/hexafluoroisopropanol in cartilage formation

The purpose of this study is to create a new silk fibroin scaffold with sufficient three-dimensional morphology and porous structure for cartilage formation. We have applied sucrose particles sized around 300 to 500 μm as porogens compared to equal-sized salt particles. After the porogen was leached out with water, scaffolds were prepared with fibroin derived from sucrose/hexafluoroisopropanol (Su/H) or salt/water (Sa/W) based composites. A compression test indicated that the Sa/W fibroin was much harder than the Su/H fibroin, but a protease enzyme digested the Sa/W fibroin more quickly than Su/H fibroin. Rabbit ear chondrocytes were seeded onto the scaffolds for 4–8 week in vitro culture and histological analyses were performed. The distribution of cartilage formation in Safranin O staining was more homogenous in Su/H fibroin than that of Sa/W fibroin. The overall amount of cartilage was significantly better in the Su/H fibroin than that in the Sa/W fibroin. However, the inner structure of pore wall in the Sa/W fibroin was rough and microporous with cartilage matrix deposition, while that in the Su/H fibroin was thin and homogenous. Since mature cartilage gradually regenerates to fill the porous space, slowly degradable Su/H fibroin should be a better candidate for cartilage formation.