Gellan gum, an anionic microbial polysaccharide, is known to undergo rapid and reversible coil-helix phase transition induced by temperature and or the presence of cations. This characteristic of rapid gellation has been exploited in tissue engineering; however, the major limitations are their weak mechanical properties and higher phase-transition temperature. In this work, gellan was modified by thiolation to create an injectable, in-situ crosslinkable hydrogel. The studies show that the thiolation reduced the gellan gelation temperature while kept the 3-D confirmation of gellan. As a consequence, a physical hydrogel formed immediately after injection near the body temperature and a chemical crossllinking network further developed afterwards in the physiological conditions, making this material promising for tissue engineering.

Injectable in-situ physical and chemical crosslinkable hydrogels

240th National Meeting (2010)

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