Mineralization of hydroxyapatite upon a unique xanthan gum hydrogel by an alternate soaking process

Abstract

We previously reported a xanthan gum (Xan) hydrogel showing excellent mechanical properties. Mineralization of hydroxyapatite (Hap) upon the Xan hydrogel would provide a unique biomaterial applicable for bone tissue engineering. Here, we show the mineralization of Hap upon the Xan hydrogel by means of an alternate soaking process. Hap was gradually grown upon the Xan-matrix surface with increasing number of soaking cycles due to the ionic interactions between calcium cations and carboxyl groups. Interestingly, the mineralization induced a microstructure change in the gel-matrix from a layered structure to a porous structure. The mechanical properties of the resulting Hap-Xan composite hydrogels were further investigated by a tensile test, where the Hap-Xan composite hydrogel with an appropriate amount of Hap (Xan/Hap=2.7) was capable of approximately 370% elongation.

Properties of films obtained from biopolymers of different origins for skin lesions therapy

“…However, given that there is a tendency to avoid the use of materials from xenogenic origin for tissue engineering purposes and of complex composition, collagen replacement by compounds such as xanthan gum could provide additional benefits to such devices. The carboxyl groups in xanthan gum, when combined with the amines of chitosan, result in a microenvironment that favors the stabilization of proteins (Chellat et al 2000) and allows obtaining hydrogels (Dyondi et al 2013;Izawa et al 2014), tablets (Popa et al 2010) and films (Bejenariu et al 2008). The properties of membranes of chitosan combined with analytical grade xanthan gum in different reacting conditions were assessed in detail recently by Bellini et al (2012), which showed that these devices had appropriate characteristics for application as bioactive dermal dressings and as three-dimensional scaffolds for cell culture useful in the tissue engineering area.…”

“…When compared to polysaccharides extracted directly from the natural sources, such as alginate derived from seaweed, xanthan gum has the advantage of being independent of the production site and climatic conditions, which allows its production under significantly more controlled conditions, with lower variability in the properties of material originated from different batches and, therefore, with higher quality assurance. For this reason, xanthan gum, alone or combined with other polymers, has been gaining attention in the composition of biomaterials intended for different biomedical applications, such as devices for the controlled release of drugs (Popa et al 2010;Bellini et al 2012;Veiga and Moraes 2012;Dyondi et al 2013) and probiotic bacteria (Argin et al 2014), hydrogels for bone regeneration (Izawa et al 2014), ophthalmological materials (Ceulemans et al 2002;Ludwig 2005), implants (Kumar et al 2007) and scaffolds for tissue engineering Bellini et al 2012).…”

Preparation of Functional Xanthan Gum Materials Using Ionic Liquid

“…Mineralization of hydroxyapatite (Hap) upon the xanthan gum hydrogel was performed by an alternate soaking process to produce a composite hydrogel, where the xanthan gum matrix acted as a scaffold owing to the presence of carboxylate groups [28]. The content of Hap in the resulting composite hydrogel was dependent on the soaking cycles.…”

Tuned Hydroxyapatite Materials for Biomedical Applications

“…This new generation of biomaterials combines with bioactive properties that resemble the natural function of bone, triggering tissue regeneration mechanisms in vivo [18,19]. Biocomposites HAp-biopolymers that often closely resemble the position and structure of mineralized tissues provide excellent mechanical properties and favorable biological properties, proving to be an ideal candidate for tissue engineering as well as orthopedic and dental applications [20].…”

“…These biocomposites are potential models for the mineralization of HAp because its anionic surface can bind the Ca 2+ ions, besides controlling the nucleation and the growth of the crystal reduce the interfacial energy between the crystal and the surface. Several materials composed of HAp can be prepared using polysaccharides in the form of scaffolds for biomedical applications and bone tissue engineering [20,21].…”