Carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) was used to fabricate porous
scaffolds, and the presence of carboxyl groups in CMCS facilitates
the deposition of an HAP coating from a mineralizing solution.
HAP coatings of different morphology and coverage were obtained
using different mineralizing solutions. The non-coated CMCS scaffold
and HAP coatings are biocompatible. The CMCS scaffold supports
osteoblast attachment, proliferation, and differentiation as
well as osteoblastic differentiation of bone marrow stem cells,
but substantial improvements can be achieved with a coating of
HAP. The main improvement was the significant enhancement of
osteoblast and bone marrow stem cell differentiation regardless
of the variation in the coating morphology and coverage.