Publications in July 2011

After dropping in the previous months, the publication number of chitosan articles slightly increased in July. Overall 76 articles were published in this field. In July 2010 83 articles were published, in comparison to this year it is only a small difference.

As in June, particularly China leads the publication market. In this month, also the Iran is strong in terms of number of publications about chitosan, obtaining a similar publication number to the USA.

Top Journals	Publications
Biomacromolecules	4
Talanta	4
J Mater Sci Mater Med	3
J Biomaler Sci Polym Ed	3

Table: Journals with the most publications about chitosan and chitosan derivatives.

Below two publications about tissue engineering are shortly introduced.

Scaffolds for dental pulp tissue engineering

K. M. Galler, R. N. D’Souza, J. D. Hartgerink, G. Schmalz, Advances in dental research, Vol. 23 (3): 333-9, 2011

A vast variety of biomaterials is available to find an appropriate scaffold in the field of tissue engineering. Each of these materials offers a unique composition, structure, degradation profile and modification possibilities.

The function of these scaffolds gradually changed from a passive carrier towards a bioactive matrix, which can induce a specific cellular behaviour. New approaches of dental pulp generating rely on established materials. Amongst collagen, polyester or hydroxylapatite chitosan also stands the test.

The results show the formation of soft connective tissue and newly generated dentin after transplantation.

So-called self-assembling peptide hydrogels are an intelligent material example to design customized matrices, because in this way, for example, it is possible to regulate the stiffness and induce the mineral nucleation as well as the antibacterial activity.

Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information

Preparation and characterization of electrospun PCL/PLGA membranes and chitosan/gelatine hydrogels for skin bioengineering applications

R. A. Franco, T. H. Nguyen, B. T. Lee, J Mater Sci Mater Med., 2011

In their study, Franco, Nguyen and Lee designed a polycaprolactone/poly-(lacto-co-glycolic acid) (PCL/PLGA – 12%PLG/10%PLGA 80:20) membrane as well as a chitosan/gelatine (CG – 2%C15%G 50:50) hydrogel, crosslinked with 5% glutaraldehyde. They also evaluated the potential of the two systems to use as a bilayer scaffold for skin bioengineering applications. The bilayer scaffold was built through a casting method using a combination of of both biomaterials.
The upper membrane layer was to reduce the degradation rate of the hydrogel layer as well as to provide the mechanical support of the scaffold.

The physical properties and biocompatibility were provisionally investigated. The PCL/PLGA membrane and the CG hydrogel were shown to be complementary when combined.

Results:

	PCL/PLGA-membrane	CG hydrogel
Physical properties	Stress values: 3,01 ± 0,23 MPa Strain values: 225.39 ± 7,63%	Porosity: ≥ 97% Compressive strength: 2,23 ± 0,25 MPa
Biocompatibility	good biocompatibility, supports cell proliferation	Swells more than 500% of its dry weight, supports fibroblast cell proliferation

Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information

Source: gopubmed