Dextran biomedical applications

Alternate anti-vs procoagulant activity of human whole blood on a LbL assembly between chitosan and dextran sulfate has been achieved [149,150]. Furthermore, the technique permits the formation of biodegradable nanostructures with nanometer-order thickness on surfaces, which is an important requirement for biomedical applications. The alternating enzymatic hydrolysis of a LbL assembly formed from chitosan and dextran sulfate by chitosanase was demonstrated via measurements with a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) [151]. The hydrolysis of the assembly was clearly dependent on the surface component. The hydrolysis of the assembly with the dextran sulfate surface was saturated within 10 min and was much faster than the hydrolysis of the assembly with the chitosan surface, although chitosanase can hydrolyse chitosan (Fig. 14). 

Water-insoluble PEC were prepared by mixing oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, e.g. DEAE dextran with CMD [340,341], sodium dextran sulfate, poly(styrene sulfonate) (NaSS) [342], poly(sodium L-glutamate) (PSLG), poly(vinyl alcohol)sulfate [343], or potassium metaphosphate (MPK) [240]. They are useful as membranes or in biomedical applications [343,344]. 

Also aiming at biomedical applications are nanoscaled hydrogels, prepared in inverse miniemulsion. In crosslinked poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether methacrylate) (POEOMA) nanogels hydrophilic dyes as the polymeric dye (rhodamine isothiocyanate (RITC) dextran) [41], rhodamine in combination with the drug doxorubicin [42] or gold nanoparticles with bovine serum albumin [43] could be encapsulated. 

Lu, M., Albertsson, P. A., Johansson, G., Tjemeld, F. (1996). Ucon-benzoyl dextran aqueous two-phase systems protein purification with phase component recychng. Journal of Chromatography B-Biomedical Applications, 680, 65-70. 

Dextran FEP, PTMSP Various biomedical applications including contact lenses 300... 

Hoffman AS (2002) Hydrogels for biomedical applications. Adv Drug DeHv Rev 54 3 Hovgaard L, Bnandsted H (1995) Dextran hydrogels for colon-specific drug delivery. J Control Release 36 159... 

Dextran is a biocompatible polymer used for the preparation of hydrogels. Dextran hydrogels can be obtained by several different approaches and they have received increased attention due to the variety of their biotechnological and biomedical applications. Dextran hydrogels have been frequently considered as a potential matrix system for colon-specific dehvery and/or controlled release (CR) of bioactive... 

The potentials of a hydrogel made from the non-antigenic dextran as a biomedical material have not been fully explored. The cost of the hydrogel membrane is only about 10/ft. If results from future clinical trials corroborate with our observations in the animal experiment, it will be interesting to evaluate other possible biomedical applications for this material. 

Zhang R. Dextran Hydrogel Preparation and Application in Biomedical Engineering. PhD Thesis, University of Bath, England, 2004. 

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