Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal.
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jan 4;24(2):973. doi: 10.3390/ijms24020973.
Chitosan is an interesting polymer to produce hydrogels suitable for the 3D printing of customized drug delivery systems. This study aimed at the achievement of chitosan-based scaffolds suitable for the incorporation of active components in the matrix or loaded into the pores. Several scaffolds were printed using different chitosan-based hydrogels. To understand which parameters would have a greater impact on printability, an optimization study was conducted. The scaffolds with the highest printability were obtained with a chitosan hydrogel at 2.5 wt%, a flow speed of 0.15 mm/s and a layer height of 0.41 mm. To improve the chitosan hydrogel printability, starch was added, and a design of experiments with three factors and two responses was carried out to find out the optimal starch supplementation. It was possible to conclude that the addition of starch (13 wt%) to the chitosan hydrogel improved the structural characteristics of the chitosan-based scaffolds. These scaffolds showed potential to be tested in the future as drug-delivery systems.
壳聚糖是一种有趣的聚合物，可用于制备适用于定制药物输送系统 3D 打印的水凝胶。本研究旨在获得适合在基质中掺入活性成分或负载到孔中的壳聚糖基支架。使用不同的壳聚糖基水凝胶打印了几种支架。为了了解哪些参数会对可印刷性产生更大的影响，进行了优化研究。以 2.5wt%壳聚糖水凝胶、0.15mm/s 流速和 0.41mm 层厚获得了具有最高可印刷性的支架。为了提高壳聚糖水凝胶的可印刷性，添加了淀粉，并进行了三因素两响应的实验设计，以找出最佳的淀粉添加量。可以得出结论，向壳聚糖水凝胶中添加淀粉（13wt%）改善了壳聚糖基支架的结构特性。这些支架具有作为药物输送系统进行未来测试的潜力。
