A REVIEW ON BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF CHITOSAN-BASED BIOMATERIALS

Abstract

Chitin/chitosan and their derivatives have attracted considerable interest as a potential source for biomaterials such as hydrogels due to their safety and biological activities, such as, antimicrobial, antitumor and stimulation of wound healing, etc. In particular, some kinds of covalently cross-linked (chemical) chitosan hydrogel such as chemically cross-linked chitosan hydrogel, photocrosslinked chitosan hydrogel (PCH) and ionic crosslinked (physical) chitosan hydrogels such as ionic/temperature sensitive chitosan hydrogel and polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) composing positive or negative charge have been developed. These have been used in several applications including drug delivery carriers, hemostats, wound dressings, submucosal fluid cushion, tissue adhesive and scaffolds of tissue engineering which we originally evaluated. In this review, we described on chitosan hydrogels with particular attention on medical applications of PCH, hydrocolloids and PECs in fields of Biomedical Research.