Abstract
Chitosan is a natural polysaccharide that is considered to be biocompatible, biodegradable and non-toxic. The polymer has been used in drug delivery applications for its positive charge, which allows for adhesion with and recognition of biological tissues via non-covalent interactions. In recent times, chitosan has been used for the preparation of graft copolymers with thermoresponsive polymers such as poly-N-vinylcaprolactam (PNVCL) and poly-N-isopropylamide (PNIPAM), allowing the combination of the biodegradability of the natural polymer with the ability to respond to changes in temperature. Due to the growing interest in the utilization of thermoresponsive polymers in the biological context, it is necessary to increase the knowledge of the key principles of thermoresponsivity in order to obtain comparable results between different studies or applications. In the present review, we provide an overview of the basic principles of thermoresponsivity, as well as a description of the main polysaccharides and thermoresponsive materials, with a special focus on chitosan and poly-N-Vinyl caprolactam (PNVCL) and their biomedical applications.
Highlights
From a physiological point of view, only a few materials can be considered to be totally inert
In the first part of this review, we provide a description of the main polysaccharides and synthetic thermoresponsive polymers that have been proposed for drug delivery applications, with a specific focus on chitosan (CS)
We provide an overview on the basics of thermoresponsivity as well as a state-of the art description of synthetic thermoresponsive materials, with a detailed focus poly-N-Vinyl caprolactam (PNVCL) and its characterization
Summary
From a physiological point of view, only a few materials can be considered to be totally inert. A variety of polymers can be used for biological and medical applications, including in drug delivery scaffolds and the replacement of tissues, which are referred to as polymeric biomaterials [7,8,9,10,11,12] These polymers can be of synthetic or natural origin, and they behave mechanically in a way that resembles natural tissues [9,10,11,13]. Natural polymers, such as polynucleotides, polypeptides and polysaccharides, are produced by living cells and are commonly used in medical applications as they allow for cellular adhesion and recognition, cell growth and differentiation [14]. The final chapter is dedicated to the recent efforts on the production of chitosan-based thermoresponsive copolymers, as well as their most relevant application and physicochemical properties
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