Arcabouços de quitosana para regeneração tecidual.

Abstract

Human skin, which corresponds to about 15% of the body weight, is an organ that covers and delimits the body, protecting it and interacting with the outside environment. Characteristically dynamic, the skin presents constant changes and it is endowed with a great capacity for repair. The skin has got thermoregulation and sensory functions, also, it is responsible for the production and excretion of metabolites and defense against physical, chemical and biological harm. In many situations, there may be loss of architecture and/or function of this tissue by infectious, inflammatory or neoplastic processes, or trauma. However, in some of these situations, conventional therapies are not enough to solve the problem and, thus, more advanced techniques have to be employed, as tissue engineering, which uses cells that may be or not associated with an extracellular matrix known as scaffold. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize scaffolds composed of chitosan, by using the freeze-drying technique, to be applied in tissue engineering. The scaffolds were produced at three concentrations (1.5% - 2% - 3%) using chitosan of low molecular weight and medium molecular weight. Then, the scaffolds were characterized by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Infrared Spectroscopy with Fourier Transform (FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and testing of the degree of swelling. The morphological studies by MO and SEM showed the formation of a three-dimensional scaffold architecture with pores influenced by the concentration of the solution. The FTIR identified all characteristic bands of chitosan independent of concentration. The XRD showed that the lyophilization process reduced the crystallinity of the material and Gl tests showed a high swelling capacity in all scaffold samples tested.