Microwave-assisted synthesis and characterization of bioactive chitosan scaffolds doped with Au nanoparticles for mesenchymal stem cells culture

Effect of Selected Crosslinking and Stabilization Methods on the Properties of Porous Chitosan Composites Dedicated for Medical Applications

Chitosan is one of the most commonly employed natural polymers for biomedical applications. However, in order to obtain stable chitosan biomaterials with appropriate strength properties, it is necessary to subject it to crosslinking or stabilization. Composites based on chitosan and bioglass were prepared using the lyophilization method. In the experimental design, six different methods were used to obtain stable, porous chitosan/bioglass biocomposite materials. This study compared the crosslinking/stabilization of chitosan/bioglass composites with ethanol, thermal dehydration, sodium tripolyphosphate, vanillin, genipin, and sodium β-glycerophosphate. The physicochemical, mechanical, and biological properties of the obtained materials were compared. The results showed that all the selected crosslinking methods allow the production of stable, non-cytotoxic porous composites of chitosan/bioglass. The composite with genipin stood out with the best of the compared properties, taking into account biological and mechanical characteristics. The composite stabilized with ethanol is distinct in terms of its thermal properties and swelling stability, and it also promotes cell proliferation. Regarding the specific surface area, the highest value exposes the composite stabilized by the thermal dehydration method.

Microwave-Treated Physically Cross-Linked Sodium Alginate and Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose Blend Polymer Film for Open Incision Wound Healing in Diabetic Animals-A Novel Perspective for Skin Tissue Regeneration Application

This study aimed at developing the microwave-treated, physically cross-linked polymer blend film, optimizing the microwave treatment time, and testing for physicochemical attributes and wound healing potential in diabetic animals. Microwave-treated and untreated films were prepared by the solution casting method and characterized for various attributes required by a wound healing platform. The optimized formulation was tested for skin regeneration potential in the diabetes-induced open-incision animal model. The results indicated that the optimized polymer film formulation (MB-3) has significantly enhanced physicochemical properties such as high moisture adsorption (154.6 ± 4.23%), decreased the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) value of (53.0 ± 2.8 g/m²/h) and water vapor permeability (WVP) value (1.74 ± 0.08 g mm/h/m²), delayed erosion (18.69 ± 4.74%), high water uptake, smooth and homogenous surface morphology, higher tensile strength (56.84 ± 1.19 MPa), and increased glass transition temperature and enthalpy (through polymer hydrophilic functional groups depicting efficient cross-linking). The in vivo data on day 16 of post-wounding indicated that the wound healing occurred faster with significantly increased percent re-epithelialization and enhanced collagen deposition with optimized MB-3 film application compared with the untreated group. The study concluded that the microwave-treated polymer blend films have sufficiently enhanced physical properties, making them an effective candidate for ameliorating the diabetic wound healing process and hastening skin tissue regeneration.

Methods for crosslinking and stabilization of chitosan structures for potential medical applications

Chitosan is a well-known polymer widely used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. It is biocompatible, biodegradable, non-toxic, has antibacterial and osteoconductive properties. Chitosan is often used in the form of composites (with the participation of ceramic particles), membranes, hydrogels or nanoparticles. The problem with biomaterials is their low durability, rapid degradation, poor mechanical properties and cytotoxicity. Cross-linking or stabilization of such materials allows for solving these problems. It is important that the compounds used for this purpose exhibit limited or no toxicity. The presented article is a review and presents some methods of cross-linking/stabilization of chitosan structures. The analysis concerns low or non-cytotoxic cross-linking/stabilization methods. The discussed compounds used for the purpose of chitosan structure fixation are: cinnamaldehyde, genipin, L-aspartic acid, vanillin, sodium carbonate, sodium alginate, BGP, ethanol and TPP. There is discussed also a hydrothermal/dehydrothermal method which seems to be promising as it is more advantageous since no additional compounds are introduced into the structure.

Recent advances of natural biopolymeric culture scaffold: synthesis and modification

Traditionally existing 2D culture scaffold has been inappropriately validated due to the failure in generating the precise therapeutic response. Therefore, this leads to the fabrication of 3D culture scaffold resolving the limitations in the in vivo environment. In recent years, tissue engineering played an important role in the field of bio-medical engineering. Biopolymer material, a novel natural material with excellent properties of nontoxic and biodegradable merits can be served as culture scaffold. This review summarizes the modifications of natural biopolymeric culture scaffold with different crosslinkers and their application. In addition, this review provides the recent progress of natural biopolymeric culture scaffold mainly focusing on their properties, synthesizing and modification and application.