Design and preparation of injectable carboxymethyl chitosan/PEG based hydrogels for soft tissue engineering

NIKOLAOS POLITAKOS; CARLOS BUSATTO; NEHA TIWARI; DIANA ESTENOZ; MARCELO CALDERÓN

San Sebastián

Congreso; GEP-SLAP2022 (XVI Reunión del Grupo Especializado de Polímeros GEP 2022 y XVII Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros - SLAP 2022); 2022

Universidad del País Vasco

Tissue engineering aims to regenerate damaged tissues through biological substitutes that act as templates for the regeneration process. To this effect, the development of porous scaffolds that can mimic the functionality and architecture of the extracellular matrix is one of the major focuses.Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide obtained by the chemical deacetylation of chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide after cellulose. The use of chitosan as a biomaterial has received increasing interest due to its remarkable properties, including biocompatibility, non-toxicity, high versatility, and biodegradability, as well as its antifungal and antibacterial activities. However, the fabrication of chitosan hydrogels for tissue engineering often requires a neutralization step to ensure biocompatibility. To avoid this drawback, carboxylated chitosan hydrogel scaffolds have been proposed for their use in tissue regeneration. In particular, chitosan soft hydrogels have been successfully used in neural tissue engineering, exhibiting cell adhesion, cell interaction, cell survival, and neurite outgrowth.This work studied the preparation of carboxylated chitosan-based soft hydrogels scaffolds by crosslinking-induced gelation via thiol−ene click reactions, using different crosslinking agents, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), dendritic polyglycerol (dPG), and nanogels (NGs) with a similar composition. The gelation time, hydrogel swelling, porous structure, and mechanical properties of the biomaterials were investigated for their application as scaffolds for nerve regeneration.