The formation ofpolysaccharide films based on the alternate deposition of chitosan (CHI) and hyaluronan (HA) was investigated by several techniques. The multilayer buildup takes place in two stages: during the first stage, the surface is covered by isolated islets that grow and coalesce as the construction goes on. After several deposition steps, a continuous film is formed and the second stage of the buildup process takes place. The whole process is characterized by an exponential increase of the mass and thickness of the film with the number of deposition steps. This exponential growth mechanism is related to the ability of the polycation to diffuse "in" and "out" of the whole film at each deposition step. Using confocal laser microscopy and fluorescently labeled CHI, we show that such a diffusion behavior, already observed with poly(L-lysine) as a polycation, is also found with CHI, a polycation presenting a large persistence length. We also analyze the effect of the molecular weight (MW) of the diffusing polyelectrolyte (CHI) on the buildup process and observe a faster growth for low MW chitosan. The influence of the salt concentration during buildup is also investigated. Whereas the CHI/HA films grow rapidly at high salt concentration (0.15 M NaCl) with the formation of a uniform film after only a few deposition steps, it is very difficult to build the film at 10(-4) M NaCl. In this latter case, the deposited mass increases linearly with the number of deposition steps and the first deposition stage, where the surface is covered by islets, lasts at least up to 50 bilayer deposition steps. However, even at these low salt concentrations and in the islet configuration, CHI chains seem to diffuse in and out of the CHI/HA complexes. The linear mass increase of the film with the number of deposition steps despite the CHI diffusion is explained by a partial redissolution of the CHI/HA complexes forming the film during different steps of the buildup process. Finally, the uniform films built at high salt concentrations were also found to be chondrocyte resistant and, more interestingly, bacterial resistant. Therefore, the (CHI/HA) films may be used as an antimicrobial coating.

A new disulfide cross-linking strategy was developed to prepare hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel from thiol-modified HA. First, dithiobis(propanoic dihydrazide) (DTP) and dithiobis(butyric dihydrazide) (DTB) were synthesized and then coupled to HA with carbodiimide chemistry. Next, disulfide bonds of the initially formed gel were reduced using dithiothreitol (DTT) to give, after exhaustive dialysis, the corresponding thiol-modified macromolecular derivatives HA-DTPH and HA-DTBH. The degree of substitution of HA-DTPH and HA-DTBH could be controlled from 20% to 70% of available glucuronate carboxylic acid groups. The pK(a) values of the HA-thiol derivatives were determined spectrophotometrically to be pK(a) = 8.87 (HA-DTPH) and pK(a) = 9.01 (HA-DTBH). The thiol groups could be oxidized in air to reform disulfide linkages, which resulted in HA-DTPH and HA-DTBH hydrogel films. Further oxidation of these hydrogels with dilute H(2)O(2) created additional cross-links and afforded poorly swellable films. The disulfide cross-linking was reversible, and films could be again reduced to sols with DTT. Release of blue dextran from cross-linked films was used as a model for drug release. The rapid gelation of the HA-DTPH solution under physiological conditions was also achieved, which demonstrated the capacity for in situ cell encapsulation. Thus, L-929 murine fibroblasts were encapsulated in HA-DTPH hydrogel; these cells remained viable and proliferated during 3 days of culture in vitro.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract