Extracellular matrix dextran

In addition to their important roles as stored fuels (starch, glycogen, dextran) and as structural materials (cellulose, chitin, peptidoglycans), polysaccharides and oligosaccharides are information carriers they serve as destination labels for some proteins and as mediators of specific cell-cell interactions and interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix. Specific carbohydrate-containing molecules act in cell-cell recognition and... 

Many natural hydrogels are known to be constituents of the extracellular matrix, mucin, glycocalix and so on. Jelly is a well-known example of the use of hydrogels in food. Hydrogels can be obtained from many hydrophilic polymers, either natural (e.g. cellulose, dextran, alginate, hyaltuonic acid, chitosan, pectin) or synthetic (e.g. poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), PEG, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), PHEMA, polyacrylamides). 

Natural polymers such as collagen, elastin, and fibrin make up much of the body s native extracellular matrix (ECM), and they were explored as platforms for tissue engineered constructs [34,47 9]. Polysaccharides such as chitosan, starch, alginate, and dextran were also studied for these purposes. Simultaneously, silk fibroin was widely explored for vascular applications due to its higher mechanical properties in comparison to other natural polymers, such as fibrin [48]. The utilization of natural polymers to create tissue-engineered scaffolds has yielded promising results, both in vitro and in vivo, due in part to the enhanced bioactivity provided by materials normally found within the human body [50]. However, their mechanical response is usually below the required values therefore, synthetic polymers have been explored to achieve the desired properties. 

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