Carrageenans for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications: A review

A Guide to Polysaccharide-Based Hydrogel Bioinks for 3D Bioprinting Applications

“…The application of carrageenan-based hydrogels in the biomedical field is well-known, particularly in drug delivery, tissue engineering, and wound healing, as reviewed by Yegappan et al [ 88 ] and, most recently, by Jafari et al [ 89 ], who also highlighted the potential of carrageenan hydrogels for the formulation of bioinks. Several strategies have been explored to develop carrageenan-based hydrogel bioinks with adequate properties, namely the incorporation of nanostructures, such as nanosilicates (nSi) [ 69 , 70 , 75 ], the combination with other biopolymers, such as gelatin [ 70 , 71 ] and alginate [ 73 ], and even the chemical modification of the carrageenan macromolecular backbone with the production of methacrylated derivatives [ 67 , 72 ], envisioning to improve some limitations mainly related with their rheological properties and poor mechanical stability under physiological conditions [ 88 ].…”

Carrageenan-Based Compounds as Wound Healing Materials

“…The unique characteristics possessed by carrageenans due to exhibiting antiviral, immunomodulatory, anticoagulant, antioxidant, and anticancer properties have prompted the attempt of developing carrageenan-based polymeric nanofiber structures [ 69 ]. The underlying reason is that polymerization of various biomaterials with a wide array of biological qualities into nanofibers has been successfully implemented in a number of cases, including polycaprolactone (PCL), poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), silk fibroin, collagen, chitosan, alginate, hyaluronic acid (HA), and cellulose [ 70 ], resulting in a diversity of potential applications.…”

“…Furthermore, the use of a “bioactive composite scaffold with enhanced biomimetic mineralization” that also had silk fibroin “led to a bone-like apatite layer” deposit after 7 days [ 127 ]. Jafari et al [ 69 ] mention certain in vitro studies that used: methacrylate-K-CG hydrogel for soft tissue engineering, bioprinting, and suture-less adhesives; CG/Whitlockite nanoparticles hydrogel for bone tissue engineering and drug delivery with a great expression of both early and late osteogenic markers; and a K-CG hydrogel for cartilage regeneration that displayed very low cytotoxicity [ 69 ]. CG also had a beneficial effect on chondrogenic and osteogenic induction in a mesenchymal stem cell culture study [ 128 ].…”

Sulfate groups position determines the ionic selectivity and syneresis properties of carrageenan systems

“…Numerous applications of natural polymers are limited by the ability of the polymers to give a gel with exudation (syneresis) (Chen, Xu & Wang, 2007;Gonzalez, Loubes, Bertotto, Baeza & Tolaba, 2021;Laplante, Turgeon & Paquin, 2006). Some of the applications are relevant for human health management like cell cultures in hydrogels for disease diagnostics and tissue engineering (Divoux, Mao & Snabre, 2015;Hoffman, 2012;Jafari, Farahani, Sedighi, Rabiee & Savoji, 2022;Peppas, Bures, Leobandung & Ichikawa, 2000;Zhang et al, 2020). To understand the physicochemical causes of syneresis of natural polymers hydrogels, kappacarrageenan polysaccharide is used as the material of this investigation, because this material exhibits severe syneresis in relatively short experimental time with a dependence to many physicochemical factors (Ako, 2015;Elmarhoum & Ako, 2021).…”