Crosslinked polysaccharides have a wide range of potential applications in the biomedical field. CD BioGlyco has established a variety of physical and chemical methods to provide clients with biodegradable polysaccharide crosslinking services as well as characterization services of crosslinked polysaccharides.

Crosslinking of Polysaccharides

Polysaccharides are a group of polymers of simple sugar building blocks, including starch, cellulose, chitosan, alginates, carrageenan gum, and others. Polysaccharides have been used extensively as stabilizers, suspending agents, film-forming agents, aerating agents, binders, structuring agents, flocculants, and, in particular, thickeners and gelling agents. Polysaccharides are hydrated in an aqueous environment to create a gel structure called hydrogel. Aqueous solutions of hydrophilic polymers at low or medium concentrations usually exhibit Newtonian behavior. When crosslinking between different polymer chains is introduced, the resulting network shows viscoelasticity. Therefore, crosslinking must be present to avoid the dissolution of the hydrophilic polymer chains into the aqueous phase.

The biodegradable properties of hydrogels are advantageous for many applications. For this reason, researchers often introduce labile bonds into the gel, which can be present in the polymer backbone or in the crosslinks used to prepare the gel. These bonds can be broken under physiological conditions either enzymatically or chemically. Crosslinked polysaccharides are useful for coating and/or embedding pharmaceutically active substances or drug compositions.

Fig.1 Crosslinking reaction between chitosan and genipin. (Pomari, et al., 2019)

Biodegradable Polysaccharide Crosslinking Services at CD BioGlyco

We offer our clients a wide range of crosslinking methods for biodegradable polysaccharides, including chemical and physical methods to prepare Polysaccharide-based Biodegradable Materials for specific applications. Our services include but are not limited to:

• Physical crosslinking
  
  • Crosslinking by ionic interactions: We offer crosslinking of polysaccharides by ionic interactions, such as alginate. Alginate has both mannuronic and glucuronic acid residues and can be crosslinked by calcium ions. The resulting alginate gels can often be used as substrates for encapsulating live cells and releasing proteins. We also help our clients prepare calcium-gellan beads to create new opportunities in the field of bioencapsulation.
  • Cross-linking by crystallization: We modulate gel properties by adding specific compounds to water-soluble polymers that undergo freeze-thawing processes to form gels, thereby reducing the release of model drugs. We also offer hydrophobic modifications to help clients prepare physically cross-linked hydrogels using polysaccharides such as chitosan, dextran, pullulan, and carboxy methyl curdlan.
• Chemical crosslinking
  We offer chemical crosslinking of polysaccharides, which is a highly versatile method with good mechanical stability. During the crosslinking process, counter ions diffuse into the polymer and the cross-linking agent reacts with the polysaccharide to form inter- or intra-molecular linkages.
  
  • Crosslinking by radical polymerization
  • Crosslinking by aldehyde
  • Crosslinking by addition reaction
  • Crosslinking by condensation reaction
• Characterization of crosslinked polysaccharides
  We offer our clients characterization services for crosslinked polysaccharides by multiple techniques, such as X-ray diffractometry, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and water uptake methods.

Applications

• Development of delivery systems of proteins and imaging agents
• Controlled drug delivery applications
• Development of wound healing drug

With advanced technology and a first-class research team, CD BioGlyco is capable of providing comprehensive services of Modification of Biodegradable Polysaccharides to obtain cross-linked polysaccharides and characterize these polymers with the aim of future biomedical applications.

If you are interested in our business, please feel free to contact us for more details.