Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
that chitosan does not induce other inflammatory events. Certain cartilaginous tissues
could also be repaired in view of the angiogenic action of chitosan.
Chitosan with structural characteristics similar to glycosaminoglycans could be
considered for developing a skin replacement. Yannas and Burke (1980) proposed a
design for artificial skin applicable to long-term chronic use, with the focus on a non
antigenic membrane that performs as a biodegradable template for neodermal tissue
(Yannas and Burke, 1980). The functionality of chitosan has also attracted the interest
of many researchers to use it in the areas of dentistry and orthopedics (Davidenko et al.,
2010; Di Martino et al., 2005; Jeon et al., 2000; Jiang et al., 2008; Kong et al., 2005;
Venkatesan and Kim, 2010; Venkatesan et al., in press; Teng et al., 2009). Chitosan has
been known to possess many biological activities such as antibacterial activity (Jeon
and Kim, 2000; Jeon et al., 2001), anti-diabetic (Liu et al., 2007), immunoenhancing
effect (Suzuki et al., 1986), antioxidant (Je et al., 2004), matrix metalloproteinase
inhibitor (Kim and Kim, 2006; Rajapakse et al., 2006; Van Ta et al., 2006), anti-HIV
(Artan et al., In press), anti-inflammatory (Yang et al., 2010), drug delivery (Liu et al.,
2007) heavy metal removal (Sudha and Celine, 2008; Karthik et al., 2009) and so on.
In addition, it has the potential to be used as artificial kidney membrane, absorb-
able sutures, hypocholesterolemic agents, drug delivery systems, and supports for
immobilized enzymes. Chitosan properties allow it to clot blood rapidly and have
recently gained approval in the United States and Europe for use in bandages and
other hemostatic agents. Chitosan hemostatic products have been shown in testing by
the U.S. Marine Corps to quickly stop bleeding and result in 100% survival. Chitosan
hemostatic products reduce blood loss in comparison to gauze dressings and increase
patient survival (Pusateri et al., 2003). Chitosan is hypoallergenic, and has natural
anti-bacterial properties, further supporting its use in field bandages. According to Qi,
chitosan nanoparticles could exhibit effective antitumor activities (Qi and Xu, 2006).
Chitosan has been combined with a variety of delivery materials such as alginate, hy-
droxyapatite, hyaluronic acid, calcium phosphate, PMMA, poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA),
and growth factors for potential application in orthopedics. Overall, chitosan offers
broad possibilities for cell-based tissue engineering (Hu et al., 2006). Besides, it has
been claimed to weight reducing process. The aim of this review is to discuss the
recent developments on the biopolymer like chitosan composites that are specially
designed for the tissue engineering and biomedical applications.
Due to the abundance of hydrophilic functional groups, chitosan is not soluble in
most organic solvents. In order to solve this problem, some chemical modifications
to introduce hydrophobic nature to chitosan such as phthaloylation (Nishimura et al.,
1991), alkylation (Yalpani and Hall, 1984), and acylation (Hirano et al., 1976; Moore
and Roberts, 1981; Zong et al., 2000) reactions can be done. Several studies showed
that acylated chitosans are very interesting derivatives of chitosan to be used in bio-
medical applications. Chitosan and its derivatives such as trimethyl chitosan have
been used in non-viral gene delivery. Trimethyl chitosan, or quaternised chitosan, has
been shown to transfect breast cancer cells; with increased degree of trimethylation
increasing the cytotoxicity and at approximately 50% trimethylation the derivative
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