Phycocyanin enhances potential neural stem cell differentiation in iron doped chitosan hydroxyapatite scaffolds

Incorporating magnetic materials into scaffolds has garnered significant interest due to its potential to enhance neuroregeneration. This study explored the development of novel chitosan scaffolds (CS) with phycocyanin and FeHA, containing iron and phycocyanin, into hydroxyapatite (HA) using a freeze-drying process. The synthesized powders were comprehensively characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to elucidate their morphology and composition. Notably, the findings confirmed the successful incorporation of iron into the HA framework. The XRD pattern showed no secondary iron oxide phase, confirming successful iron incorporation into the HA lattice. The magnetic evaluation revealed that the powders exhibited saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercivity of approximately 0.25 emu/g and ~ 50 Oe, respectively. Furthermore, the results of the MTT assay demonstrated the superior performance of this newly developed composite scaffold, observing cells with neuron-like morphologies (spindle shape with cytoplasmic extensions) on the scaffold, which hints at neuroinductive effects suggesting its cytocompatibility and neuroregenerative potential which makes it a promising candidate for neural tissue engineering applications.