IN SITU FORMING HYDROGELS OF HYALURONIC ACID AND INULIN DERIVATIVES FOR CARTILAGE REGENERATION

Abstract

An in situ forming hydrogel obtained by crosslinking of amino functionalized hyaluronic acid derivativeswith divinylsulfone functionalized inulin (INU-DV) has been here designed and characterized. In par-ticular two hyaluronic acid derivatives bearing respectively a pendant ethylenediamino (EDA) portion(HA-EDA) and both EDA and octadecyl pendant groups (HA-EDA-C18) were crosslinked through an azo-Michael reaction with INU-DV. Gelation time and consumption of DV portions have been evaluated onhydrogel obtained using HA-EDA and HA-EDA-C18derivatives with a concentration of 3% w/v and a ratio80/20 w/w respect to the crosslinker INU-DV. The presence of pendant C18chains improves mechanicalperformances of hydrogels and decreases the susceptibility to hyaluronidase hydrolysis. Bovine chon-drocytes, encapsulated during crosslinking, sufficiently survive and efficiently proliferate until 28 daysof analysis.