Functional enhancement of chitosan and nanoparticles in cell culture, tissue engineering, and pharmaceutical applications

Abstract

As a biomaterial, chitosan has been widely used in tissue engineering, wound healing, drug delivery, and other biomedical applications. It can be formulated in a variety of forms, such as powder, film, sphere, gel, and fiber. These features make chitosan an almost ideal biomaterial in cell culture applications, and cell cultures arguably constitute the most practical way to evaluate biocompatibility and biotoxicity. The advantages of cell cultures are that they can be performed under totally controlled environments, allow high throughput functional screening, and are less costly, as compared to other assessment methods. Chitosan can also be modified into multilayer composite by combining with other polymers and moieties to alter the properties of chitosan for particular biomedical applications. This review briefly depicts and discusses applications of chitosan and nanoparticles in cell culture, in particular, the effects of chitosan and nanoparticles on cell adhesion, cell survival, and the underlying molecular mechanisms: both stimulatory and inhibitory influences are discussed. Our aim is to update the current status of how nanoparticles can be utilized to modify the properties of chitosan to advance the art of tissue engineering by using cell cultures.

Liposomes as carriers: not as innocent as one would like

“…That this view may be a little bit too simple has been brought to our attention by a thorough comparative study of the influence of three lipid-based transfection agents on hepatocytes focusing on various side effects on cellular metabolism presented in this issue of Archives of Toxicology (Böttger et al 2015). While this study confirmed the high efficiency of the tested transfection agents in silencing transcription of target genes by respective siRNAs together with a low cytotoxicity for the hepatocytes (Bakhshandeh et al 2012;Gao et al 2012), it demonstrated considerable effects on different aspects of lipid and amino acid metabolism of these cells (Böttger et al 2015). Using highly sophisticated shotgun lipidomics analysis, Böttger et al (2015) showed that all tested transfection agents altered the hepatocellular accumulation of triglycerides (two up and one down).…”

In vitro cytotoxicity of Fe–Cr–Nb–B magnetic nanoparticles under high frequency electromagnetic field

“…Because of its versatility, chitosan was used extensively to coat metallic nanoparticles, including the ones used for hyperthermia applications [6,8], immobilization of enzymes on electrodes in electrochemical biosensors [9], drug delivery for administration of either biomacromolecules or low molecular weight drugs [10], etc. Chitosan is also considered an almost ideal biomaterial for cell culture applications, whereas the cell cultures model represent the most practical approach to evaluate biocompatibility and biotoxicity [11].…”

Aerogels made of chitosan and chondroitin sulfate at high degree of neutralization: Biological properties toward wound healing

“…3,4 Moreover, CS can be molded in different forms, such as films, gels, sponges, fibers, nanoparticles, nanofibers; and combined with glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), such as chondroitin sulfate (ChS), can form sponges and scaffolds for diverse applications in tissue engineering. [5][6][7] ChS is an anionic polymer found as a natural GAG in the extracellular matrix (ECM) 8,9 typically of cartilage, skin, cornea, and the umbilical cord, and it is used in medicine for cartilage tissue engineering, in anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial devices, 10,11 and as a vehicle in pharmacological systems. 12 Furthermore, it shows activity in cell differentiation and proliferation.…”