Rheology of polysaccharide based self-cross-linked injectable hydrogel

Abstract

Injectable hydrogel systems are the current interest in health care or medical field for therapeutic agent delivery, disease/cancer therapy, and tissue engineering. On the other hand, polysaccharide-based hydrogels are appealing materials for biomedical applications due to their polyfunctionality, biodegradability as well as originality (origin from nature). Hence, attention has been given in preparation of polysaccharide based injectable hydrogel. But the stability, usability, and application of injectable hydrogel in the biomedical field is determined by rheological properties, which is the most significant features of injectable hydrogels. This article reports about rheological behaviors such as storage (G') and loss modulus (G"), complex viscosity, shear stress and gel point of polysaccharide based injectable hydrogels prepared with oxidized bacterial cellulose, pectin, and chitosan, designated as S-0.5, S-0.75, S-1.0 and S-1.5. They appeared as transparent white, self-crosslinked, and soft polymeric gel with gel formation within less than 30 second possessing depicting viscoelastic properties under oscillatory shear deformation.