Fig. 3.
Examination of gelatin retention. (A) Picrosirius red staining showed that non-crosslinked scaffolds lost the majority of incorporated gelatin after washing (Composite non-crosslinked). In contrast, photo-crosslinked scaffolds retained a portion of incorporated gelatin within the scaffold mesh (Composite crosslinked, red). (B) Non-crosslinked scaffolds showed significantly higher weight loss compared to crosslinked scaffolds. (C) Crosslinked scaffolds retained ~45% of their initial gelatin content based on hydroxyproline assay, while non-crosslinked scaffolds retained less than 3%. (D) Mechanical testing of crosslinked scaffolds demonstrated equivalent maximum load to that of dry composite scaffolds, while non-crosslinked scaffolds showed approximately 16% reduction after washing. *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01, n=4.