Comparison of composite polysaccharide-based materials for tissue engineering by means of texture analysis

Scaffold materials play a significant role in tissue regeneration, therefore it is crucial to investigate their morphological characteristics and properties. Recently a particular interest has been raised for materials based on two oppositely charged polysaccharides: alginate and chitosan. In the present paper the morphological characteristics of a pure alginate gel and a binary (gel) mixture composed of alginate and chitosan are evaluated and compared in order to quantify the differences between the two structures. A set of textural descriptors based on histogram analysis as well as on fractal dimension is extracted from Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images in order to describe the differences that the images visually present.