- Advantages of Chitin-Based Nanobiomaterials in Nanomedicine

Abstract

Chitin, the second most abundant natural biomaterial composed of β(1→4)-linked 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-d-glucose units (or N-acetylglucosamine units), is well recognized as a substance providing many valuable biological properties, namely, biocompatibility, hemostasis, and antibacterial/anti-infectious property (Jayakumar et al., 2011). It is a fairly cytocompatible material that promotes the attachment and spreading of diverse cells such as normal human keratinocytes, broblasts, osteoblasts, and many more. Chitin is highly biodegradable in nature due to the activity of lysozymes present in the human body (Kurita et al., 2000; Noh et al., 2006). It is being used in the fabrication of a variety of medical devices and regenerative medical components due to its high crystallinity, biochemical signicance, and biocompatibility (Yimin et al., 2008). The excellent and unique properties of chitin offer a large and active surface area, making it suitable for different applications, and hence, these properties are being explored in the elds of engineering, technology, and medicine (Muzzarelli, 2011). The main disadvantage of chitin is its insolubility in organic solvents and acids. However, chitin is soluble in saturated CaCl2-methanol solvent system (Tamura et al., 2011). Using this solvent system, chitin solution was prepared (Tamura et al., 2011). This chitin solution can be easily regenerated into gel or nanogel by the addition of water/methanol (Sanoj Rejinold et al., 2011, 2012; Tamura et al., 2011). Chitin hydrogel is subjected to lyophilization to obtain chitin scaffolds (Madhumathi et al., 2010; Jayakumar et al., 2011;CONTENTS34.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 673 34.2 Chitin Nanobers in Tissue Engineering and Wound Dressing ................................ 674 34.3 Chitin Nanocomposite Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering and Wound Healing ........ 675 34.4 Chitin Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery .......................................................................... 676 34.5 Chitin Nanogels in Drug Delivery and Imaging .......................................................... 676 34.6 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 678 Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... 678 References ..................................................................................................................................... 678Sowmya et al., 2011; Tamura et al., 2011). This chapter will focus on the advantages of chitin nanobers, nanogels, and nanocomposite scaffolds in drug delivery, tissue engineering, and wound healing in detail.