Alginate is a natural anionic polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of β-D-mannuronic acid (M units) and α-L-guluronic acid (G units) linked via 1,4-glycosidic bonds, mainly from brown algae and bacteria. Due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, modification flexibility, and other characteristics or physiological functions, alginate is used to form alginate-based hydrogels for biomedical applications.
Preparation
The preparation methods of alginate-based hydrogels mainly include physical crosslinking, chemical crosslinking, and physical-chemical double crosslinking.
Physical crosslinking is one of the common crosslinking strategies to prepare alginate-based hydrogels by the interconnection of noncovalent bonds. These interconnections include electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding, entanglement of molecular chains, etc. Among them, physical crosslinking by electrostatic interaction, including ionic crosslinking and macromolecular electrostatic crosslinking, is one of the major methods to form alginate-based hydrogels.
Chemical crosslinking refers to the three-dimensional network structure formed by chemical bonding between monomers or polymers. The uronic acid units of alginate contain a large number of reactive groups such as hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, which are easy to modify. The resulting alginate derivatives can be further polymerized or chemically reacted with other active groups to obtain alginate-based hydrogels.
- Physical-chemical double crosslinking
Physical-chemical double crosslinking refers to using both physical and chemical crosslinking methods to prepare alginate-based hydrogels. The obtained hydrogels usually have a double network structure, and the crosslinking density and mechanical properties are significantly improved.
Applications
Alginate-based hydrogels have broad application prospects in biomedicine such as drug carriers, wound dressing and tissue engineering due to their excellent properties.
- As drug carriers, alginate-based hydrogels can load different types of drugs such as small molecules and proteins drugs, and control the release rate and quantity of drugs by regulating the degree of crosslinking, swelling or degradation rate.
- In wound dressings, alginate-based hydrogels can absorb or prevent a large number of tissue fluid losses to keep the wound moist and reduce bacterial infection.
- In terms of tissue engineering applications, alginate-based hydrogels are ideal scaffold materials. In addition, they also can be widely applied to the repair and regeneration of bone tissue, cartilage tissue, and cardiovascular system.
More applications of alginate-based hydrogels are shown below (Figure 1)[1].
Figure 1. The applications of alginate-based hydrogels in biomedicine.
Our Products
Alfa Chemistry is a leading global supplier of hydrogels. Our experienced scientists focus on the production and performance improvement of alginate-based hydrogels. Our products include but are not limited to the following. Please contact us to customize the alginate-based hydrogels you need, and we will provide you with high quality products according to your detailed requirements.
- SiO2/sodium alginate (SA) composite hydrogel
- pH sensitive sodium alginate (SA)/graphene oxide (GO) composite hydrogel spheres
- Alginate/carboxymethyl chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite hydrogel
- Alginate/carboxymethyl chitosan composite hydrogel
- Sodium alginate (SA)/sulfhydrylated fructose-chitosan composite hydrogel
- Calcium silicate (CaSiO)/calcium alginate (CaAlg) composite hydrogel
Reference
- Tan, J.; et al. Development of alginate-based hydrogels: crosslinking strategies and biomedical applications. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. 2023, 239: 124275.
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