Chitosan as a Bioadhesive Material

Chitosan is a natural cationic polysaccharide derived from chitin by partially deacet-ylating its acetamido groups with strong alkaline solutions [115]. Over the last two decades, chitosan has been used for various biomedical and drug delivery applications due to its low toxicity and good biocompatibility and antimicrobial and bioadhesive properties [116-118]. 

It is widely recognized that specific interactions between polymers and mucins play an important role in mucosal adhesion at the molecular level. Khutoryanskiy et al. [126] have isolated and estimated the contribution of different physical interactions through manipulating chitosan structure via partial acetylation and adding NaCl, ethanol or urea. Although it was not possible to completely switch off selected interactions, Khutoryanskiy et al. have demonstrated that mucoadhesive interactions between chitosan and mucin are complex with contributions from electrostatic attraction. 

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