As
an emergent interdisciplinary subject, tissue engineering is
widely used in the maintenance, repair, replacement, and reconstruction
of the structure and function of cartilage, blood vessels, heart,
skin, and liver. Tissue engineering includes three elements: seed
cells, tissue engineering scaffolds, and tissue construction. Among
them, tissue engineering scaffolds, especially porous scaffolds, play
an important role. The support material should have ideal physical,
chemical, and mechanical properties matching with the actual application,
such as specific size and shape, an appropriate pore size, and appropriate
porosity and surface properties. As a kind of natural biopolymeric
linear polysaccharide, chitosan (CHi) has sterling properties including
being nontoxic, nonirritant, biocompatible, bacteriostatic, and excellently
hydrophilic. Aramid fibers (AF) belong to a class of synthetic fibers
that are thermally stable, chemically stable, and highly temperature-resistant
and have low mass and a long service life. Previous studies have demonstrated
that bulk AF can be effectively split into aramid nanofibers (ANFs)
via dissolution in a system of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/potassium
hydroxide (KOH). Composite aerogels own a three-dimensional and pore-like
structure with the advantages of light weight, high porosity, and
large specific surface area, which are suitable for use in the field
of tissue engineering. Addressed herein is the composite aerogel synthesized
from CHi and ANFs using chemical crosslinking with glutaraldehyde
(GA) for a tissue engineering scaffold, named ANFs/CHi/GA. The composite
was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and
X-ray diffraction. ANFs/CHi/GA was bacteriostatic with abundant cell
adhesions and a uniform cell distribution. Cytotoxicity tests prove
that the composite aerogel materials are nontoxic and the cells could
proliferate greatly in their leaching solutions. Cells can adhere
to and distribute well on the surface of the composite aerogel material,
which is suitable for use in scaffold materials.