Novel biocompatible and antimicrobial supramolecular O-carboxymethyl chitosan biguanidine/zinc physical hydrogels.

Zinc crosslinked supramolecular hydrogels from O-carboxymethyl chitosan biguanidine were successfully prepared. The structures of the prepared hydrogels were verified by H NMR, FTIR and XRD. FE-SEM verified the porous structure of hydrogels especially at high contents of Zn ions. The integral procedure decomposition temperatures calculated from TGA curves showed that the thermal stability was increased upon increasing the content of Zn ions. Cytotoxicity assays confirmed that the amounts of Zn ions released from hydrogels were below the toxic level towards a breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The prepared hydrogels exhibited a significant microbial inhibition towards different species of bacteria and fungi, particularly at high Zn contents. Based on the obtained interesting data, the prepared zinc/O-carboxymethyl chitosan biguanidine could be used in drug delivery and biomedical applications.