Preparation and Characterization of a New Generation of Chitosan Hydrogels Containing Pyrimidine Ribonucleotides

Abstract

Damage to the nervous system, in particular spinal cord injuries, is a burden for the patient and is usually the cause of irreversible disability. The progress observed in the last decade in the fields of biology, biomaterial engineering and neurosurgery has created new treatment solutions while preventing further neurodegenerative processes. The most important research is focused on the implementation of polymer structures in clinical practice, especially chitosan hydrogels, which are the scaffolds for regenerating axons. This article presents a new generation of biomaterials that have the ability to gel in response to temperature changes; they are intended for injectable scaffolds for nerve cell cultures. Two types of hydrogels were prepared based on chitosan lactate and chitosan chloride using uridine 5’-monophosphate disodium salt. The structure of the systems was observed under a scanning electron microscope and examined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In addition, thermal properties were tested using differential scanning calorimetry.

Nanoarchitectonics and Biological Properties of Nanocomposite Thermosensitive Chitosan Hydrogels Obtained with the Use of Uridine 5′-Monophosphate Disodium Salt

“…The FTIR spectra of the lyophilized hydrogels obtained from the chitosan lactate solutions with UMP containing the addition of GO and, as a reference point, the spectrum of the unmodified system (the CH/LA/UMP system) are illustrated in Figure 5. Analyzing the above spectra, it can be noticed that the introduction of GO into the chitosan lactate solutions only contributed to differences in the intensity of the absorption signals identified for the control sample (the CH/LA/UMP system), discussed in detail in our publications [25][26][27]. This proves the good dispersion of the nanofiller into the polymer matrix.…”

An Investigation of the Sol-Gel Transition of Chitosan Lactate and Chitosan Chloride Solutions via Rheological and NMR Studies

“…The verification of the above proposals was created based on structural and rheological tests. Studies with the use of β-GP are presented in publications [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 50 , 51 ] and with the use of UMP in the articles [ 32 , 33 ]. On the other hand, Peters et al [ 52 ] demonstrated the molecular structure containing a ribose sugar with purines or pyrimidines that can be formed with intermolecular attractions, including π-π stacking, electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds.…”

“…Systems obtained from chitosan lactate and chitosan chloride solutions with the use of β-glycerol phosphate disodium salt pentahydrate (β-GP) or uridine 5′-monophosphate disodium salt (UMP) [ 32 , 33 ] as the cross-linking agents were investigated. Rheological measurements were carried out to define the sol-gel transition point of the analyzed chitosan systems, and their outcomes were compared with the results of experiments performed with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).…”

Chitosan as an Underrated Polymer in Modern Tissue Engineering

“…It has been proven that the combination of chitosan with organic-inorganic composites can significantly improve chitosan activity. A large increase in the compressive strength (more than 10-fold) and the maximum strain (more than 25-fold) was achieved for a blend with 10% chitosan content [184]. Silica has many valuable properties for polymers.…”