Hi Saadi,

That is a very interesting observation! 

Did you see better mineral deposition on the materials even without cells. In my opinion, mineralization assays should have a no cell seeded control, in order to understand the contribution of passive mineralization induced by the material and the active mineralization by the cells.

Hi Aja,

The issue with chitosan fibres was that they take up the stain and the controls showed uptake of the stain as well. That is a very good point of passive mineralization induction by the material and active mineralization triggered by mesenchymal stem cells. We can see the boundary of the stain uptake by cells and noting on the controls to my understanding.

Have a look at the image please. Let me know about your thoughts

Hi Saadi,

I looked at the images you had sent.

Is this alizarin stain for mineralization?

The controls are taking up a lot of the stain. So while doing the colorimetric estimation of mineralization, I would wash all the materials well and then CPC extract the color from control and test scaffolds. Subtracting the control reading from the test reading is a good thing to do. Since your controls have a high background, it may be good to have more than one control. Good luck with your assay!