Abstract: Chitosan is considered to be a very promising biopolymer for various biomedical uses because of its nontoxic and biocompatible properties. In this study, porous chitosan scaffolds were prepared by freezing and lyophilization of chitosan gel. Scaffolds were modified with water-soluble polyanionic alginate. These scaffolds were viewed via scanning electron microscopy. The scaffolds with mean pore sizes from 50 to 200 μm had a high porosity of about 90%. Because of their large surface-to-volume ratio and the three-dimensional structure, they were used as the substrate for hepatocytes culture. The cell attachment ratio was much higher than on monolayer membrane. On the porous scaffolds, hepatocytes exhibited a round cellular morphology with many microvilli evidences on the surfaces indicating healthy cells. Metabolic activities were evaluated in terms of albumin secretion and urea synthesis. It was found that hepatocytes cultured on the modified scaffolds showed an increase in albumin secretion in the first 4 days and exhibited more stable albumin secretion than those on monolayer membrane and non-modified scaffold. Therefore, the primary rat hepatocytes culture using these modified scaffolds would be beneficial to liver assist device.

Key words: Chitosan, Hepatocyte, Scaffold, Alginate, Metabolic activity