From 2D to 3D: The morphology, proliferation and differentiation of MC3T3-E1 on silk fibroin/chitosan matrices

•The SF/CS scaffold exhibited promising characteristics for 3D cell culture.•Cells in the SF/CS scaffold showed multiple morphologies.•The SF/CS scaffold provided an environment for long-term, sustainable cell culture.•Osteogenic differentiation in the SF/CS scaffold showed different features compared to 2D cases. It has been widely accepted that cell culture in two-dimensional (2D) conditions may not be able to represent growth in three-dimensional (3D) conditions. Systematic comparisons between 2D and 3D cell cultures are needed to appropriately use the existing 2D results. In this work, we conducted a comparative study between 2D and 3D cell cultures of MC3T3-E1 using the same type of material (a mixture of silk fibroin (SF) and chitosan (CS)). Our results showed 3D SF/CS scaffold exhibited different effects on cell culture compared with the 2D cases. 1) The cells grown in 3D scaffold showed multiple morphologies. 2) The proliferation of cells in 3D scaffold was long-term and sustainable. 3) Cell differentiation occurred throughout the entire 3D scaffold. The results showed that cell culture in 3D SF/CS scaffold exhibited different features than 2D cases and 3D SF/CS scaffold could be a promising material for 3D cell culture.