Conejo-Cuevas Guillermo, Ruiz-Rubio Leire, Sáez-Martínez Virginia, Pérez-González Raul, Gartziandia Oihane, Huguet-Casquero Amaia, Pérez-Álvarez Leyre
Macromolecular Chemistry Group (LABQUIMAC), Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Barrio Sarriena, s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain.
BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures, UPV/EHU Science Park, 48940 Leioa, Spain.
Polymers (Basel). 2022 Mar 17;14(6):1209. doi: 10.3390/polym14061209.
Spontaneously formed hydrogels are attracting increasing interest as injectable or wound dressing materials because they do not require additional reactions or toxic crosslinking reagents. Highly valuable properties such as low viscosity before external application, adequate filmogenic capacity, rapid gelation and tissue adhesion are required in order to use them for those therapeutic applications. In addition, biocompatibility and biodegradability are also mandatory. Accordingly, biopolymers, such as hyaluronic acid (HA) and chitosan (CHI), that have shown great potential for wound healing applications are excellent candidates due to their unique physiochemical and biological properties, such as moisturizing and antimicrobial ability, respectively. In this study, both biopolymers were modified by covalent anchoring of catechol groups, and the obtained hydrogels were characterized by studying, in particular, their tissue adhesiveness and film forming capacity for potential skin wound healing applications. Tissue adhesiveness was related to o-quinone formation over time and monitored by visible spectroscopy. Consequently, an opposite effect was observed for both polysaccharides. As gelation advances for HA-CA, it becomes more adhesive, while competitive reactions of quinone in CHI-CA slow down tissue adhesiveness and induce a detriment of the filmogenic properties.
自发形成的水凝胶作为可注射或伤口敷料材料正吸引着越来越多的关注，因为它们不需要额外的反应或有毒的交联剂。为了将它们用于那些治疗应用，需要具备诸如外用前低粘度、足够的成膜能力、快速凝胶化和组织粘附性等非常有价值的特性。此外，生物相容性和生物降解性也是必不可少的。因此，诸如透明质酸（HA）和壳聚糖（CHI）等生物聚合物，由于其独特的物理化学和生物学特性，如保湿和抗菌能力，分别在伤口愈合应用中显示出巨大潜力，是极好的候选材料。在本研究中，两种生物聚合物都通过儿茶酚基团的共价锚定进行了修饰，并且通过特别研究所得水凝胶对于潜在皮肤伤口愈合应用的组织粘附性和成膜能力来对其进行表征。组织粘附性与邻醌随时间的形成有关，并通过可见光谱进行监测。因此，观察到两种多糖呈现相反的效果。随着HA-CA凝胶化的推进，它变得更具粘附性，而CHI-CA中醌的竞争反应减缓了组织粘附性并导致成膜性能受损。
