Institute of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan.
Carbohydr Res. 2010 Aug 16;345(12):1774-80. doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2010.06.002. Epub 2010 Jun 16.
In this study, we prepared a polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) hydrogel comprising chitosan as the cationic polyelectrolyte and gamma-poly(glutamic acid) (gamma-PGA) as the anionic polyelectrolyte. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that ionic complex interactions existed in the chitosan-gamma-PGA PEC hydrogels. The compressive modulus increased upon increasing the degree of complex formation in the chitosan-gamma-PGA PEC hydrogel; the water uptake decreased upon increasing the degree of complex formation. At the same degree of complex formation, the compressive modulus was larger for the chitosan-dominated PEC hydrogels; the water uptake was larger for the gamma-PGA-dominated ones. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed the existence of interconnected porous structures (pore size: 30-100mum) in all of the chitosan-gamma-PGA PEC hydrogels. The chitosan-gamma-PGA PEC hydrogels also exhibited antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. In addition, in vitro cell culturing of 3T3 fibroblasts revealed that all the chitosan-gamma-PGA PEC hydrogels were effective in promoting cell proliferation, especially the positively charged ones (chitosan-dominated). Therefore, the chitosan-gamma-PGA polyelectrolyte hydrogel appears to have potential as a new material for biomedical applications.
在这项研究中，我们制备了一种包含壳聚糖作为阳离子聚电解质和γ-聚（谷氨酸）（γ-PGA）作为阴离子聚电解质的聚电解质复合水凝胶。傅里叶变换红外光谱显示壳聚糖-γ-PGA 聚电解质复合水凝胶中存在离子复合相互作用。随着壳聚糖-γ-PGA 聚电解质复合水凝胶中复合程度的增加，压缩模量增加；水摄取量随着复合程度的增加而减少。在相同的复合程度下，壳聚糖占主导地位的聚电解质水凝胶的压缩模量较大；γ-PGA 占主导地位的水凝胶的水摄取量较大。扫描电子显微镜图像显示所有壳聚糖-γ-PGA 聚电解质复合水凝胶中都存在相互连接的多孔结构（孔径：30-100μm）。壳聚糖-γ-PGA 聚电解质复合水凝胶还对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌表现出抗菌活性。此外，3T3 成纤维细胞的体外细胞培养表明，所有壳聚糖-γ-PGA 聚电解质复合水凝胶都能有效促进细胞增殖，尤其是带正电荷的水凝胶（壳聚糖占主导地位）。因此，壳聚糖-γ-PGA 聚电解质水凝胶似乎有潜力成为生物医学应用的新材料。
