In this work, a coating of chitosan onto alginate hydrogels was realized using the water-soluble hydrochloride form of chitosan (CH-Cl), with the dual purpose of imparting antibacterial activity and delaying the release of hydrophilic molecules from the alginate matrix. Alginate hydrogels with different calcium contents were prepared by the internal setting method and coated by immersion in a C...

The combination of an antifungal agent and drug carrier with adjunctive antimicrobial properties represents novel strategy of complex therapy in pharmaceutical technology. The goal of this study was to investigate the unmodified and ion cross-linked chitosan's influence on anti-Candida activity of clotrimazole used as a model drug in hydrogels. It was particularly crucial to explore whether the...

Endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms with a stent graft is limited by the persistence or recurrence of endoleaks. These are believed to be related to the recanalization of the aneurismal sac by endothelialized neochannels, which could lead to late type I and II endoleaks. Embolization has been proposed to treat or prevent endoleaks, but presently commercialized embolizing materials...

Polyacrylamide (PAM) was used as a matrix material for fabricating novel nanocomposite hydrogels reinforced with natural chitosan nanofibers (CNFs) via in situ free-radical polymerization. The nanocomposite's structure, strength, morphology and rheological properties were investigated. The results showed that the CNFs had a strong interaction with PAM through hydrogen and covalent bondings. The...

Cartilaginous tissues engineered using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to generate bone in vivo by executing an endochondral programme. This may hinder the use of MSCs for articular cartilage regeneration, but opens the possibility of using engineered cartilaginous tissues for large bone defect repair. Hydrogels may be an attractive tool in the scaling-up of such tissue engineered...

Hybrid polymeric networks composed of polyacrylamide and chitosan were developed to determine their swelling and ascorbic acid delivery kinetics at various chitosan concentrations. The hybrid acrylamide/chitosan hydrogels were synthesized in aqueous itaconic acid solution (1% w/w). Young’s modulus was also evaluated for the hydrogels, and the results were correlated with the swelling properties...

Conventional chitosan hydrogels exhibit an acidic nature and contain unfavorable additives because (i) chitosan is soluble only in acidic solutions and (ii) toxic chemicals or proteins of non-human origin that serve as antigens are necessary for preparing chitosan hydrogels. These characteristics of the chitosan hydrogels limit their possibilities as wound dressings. In this study, a chitosan-g...

PVP, a synthetic polymer and chitosan, a natural polymer are biocompatible and have presented a great variety of interesting properties for cosmetic, biomedical, pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications, Many alternatives to improve the polymer propeties has been made as bleeding polymers, for example. In this work, two different techniques of hydrogel attainment were used: one from mix...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to design and evaluate novel functional chitosan hydrogels (chitosan-H-propolis, chitosan-H-propolis-nystatin and chitosan-H-nystatin) by using the chitosan-H polymer as "dual function restorative materials". MATERIALS AND METHODS The nystatin/antioxidant carrier gel was prepared by dispersion of the corresponding component in glycerol and 3% acetic acid...

Advances in the generation of suitable thermosensitive hydrogels for the delivery of cells in neural tissue engineering demonstrate a delicate relationship between physical properties and capabilities to promote cell proliferation and differentiation. To improve the properties of these materials, it is possible to add liposomes for the controlled release of bioactive elements, which in turn can...