| 초록 |
As a water-soluble chitosan derivative, glycol chitosan is easily soluble in water under physiological conditions due to glycol residues and retains the favorable non-toxic and biodegradable properties of chitosan, which makes it more suitable for biomedical applications. In this study, a new thermo-sensitive polymer, glycol chitin, was synthesized by controlled N-acetylation of glycol chitosan and evaluated as a thermogelling system. The physico-chemical properties of glycol chitins with different degrees of acetylation (DA) were investigated in terms of degradation, cytotoxicity, rheological properties, and in vitro and in vivo gel formation. Aqueous solutions of glycol chitins were flowable freely at room temperature but quickly became a durable gel at body temperature. They exhibited faster degradation with higher DA and no significant biological toxicity against human cell lines. Our findings suggest that glycol chitins could be useful as a new thermogelling biomaterial for drug delivery and injectable tissue engineering. |
