Hyaluronic acid-based biomaterials. Influence of nanostructure on mechanical and degradation properties and the interplay between different receptors upon ligand decoration

摘要

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is one of the most popular biomaterials, widely employed in aesthetic surgery and orthopaedics. We have here tackled two points relating to its use as a degradable matrix in tissue regeneration: A) mechanical properties of a substrate heavily affect the behavior (phenotype, metabolic activity) of cells in its contact. We have developed a method to modulate mechanical properties and the degradation behaviour of HA-containing hydrogels without affecting the content or the molecular weight of HA but simply acting on the nanostructure obtained by modulating polymerization-induced phase separation phenomena.