1 research outputs found
Tough and Cell-Compatible Chitosan Physical Hydrogels for Mouse Bone Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Vitro
Most
hydrogels involve synthetic polymers and organic cross-linkers
that cannot simultaneously fulfill the mechanical and cell-compatibility
requirements of biomedical applications. We prepared a new type of
chitosan physical hydrogel with various degrees of deacetylation (<i>DD</i>s) via the heterogeneous deacetylation of nanoporous chitin
hydrogels under mild conditions. The <i>DD</i> of the chitosan
physical hydrogels ranged from 56 to 99%, and the hydrogels were transparent
and mechanically strong because of the extra intra- and intermolecular
hydrogen bonding interactions between the amino and hydroxyl groups
on the nearby chitosan nanofibrils. The tensile strength and Young’s
modulus of the chitosan physical hydrogels were 3.6 and 7.9 MPa, respectively,
for a <i>DD</i> of 56% and increased to 12.1 and 92.0 MPa
for a <i>DD</i> of 99% in a swelling equilibrium state.
In vitro studies demonstrated that mouse bone mesenchymal stem cells
(mBMSCs) cultured on chitosan physical hydrogels had better adhesion
and proliferation than those cultured on chitin hydrogels. In particular,
the chitosan physical hydrogels promoted the differentiation of the
mBMSCs into epidermal cells in vitro. These materials are promising
candidates for applications such as stem cell research, cell therapy,
and tissue engineering