title: Injectable Amorphous Chitin-Agarose Composite Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications.
abstract: Injectable hydrogels are gaining popularity as tissue engineering constructs because of their ease of handling and minimal invasive delivery. Making hydrogels from natural polymers helps to overcome biocompatibility issues. Here, we have developed an Amorphous Chitin (ACh)-Agarose (Agr) composite hydrogel using a simpletechnique. Rheological studies, such as viscoelastic behavior (elastic modulus, viscous modulus, yield stress, and consistency), inversion test, and injectability test, were carried out for different ACh-Agr concentrations. The composite gel, having a concentration of 1.5% ACh and 0.25% Agr, showed good elastic modulus (17.3 kPa), yield stress (3.8 kPa), no flow under gravity, injectability, and temperature stability within the physiological range. Based on these studies, the optimum concentration for injectability was found to be 1.5% ACh and 0.25% Agr. This optimized concentration was used for further studies and characterized using FT-IR and SEM. FT-IR studies confirmed the presence of ACh and Agr in the composite gel. SEM results showed that the lyophilized composite gel had good porosity and mesh like networks. The cytocompatibility of the composite gel was studied using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The composite gels showed good cell viability.These results indicated that this injectable composite gel can be used for biomedical applications.
authors: Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi 682041, India. mvishnupriya.2790@gmail.com.
authors: Murali Vishnu
authors: MV
authors: Priya
authors: Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi 682041, India. drarunnano@gmail.com.
authors: Rajendran Arun
authors: RA
authors: Kumar
authors: Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi 682041, India. sivasa19619@aims.amrita.edu.
authors: Amirthalingam
authors: A
authors: Sivashanmugam
authors: Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi 682041, India. shantinair@aims.amrita.edu.
authors: Shantikumar Vasudevan
authors: SV
authors: Nair
authors: Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi 682041, India. rjayakumar@aims.amrita.edu.
authors: Rangasamy
authors: R
authors: Jayakumar
keywords: agarose; amorphous chitin; biomedical applications; injectable hydrogel