Rheology of Sodium Hyaluronate Solutions and Relevance to their Use as Medical Implants

Abstract

Hyaluronic acid is a high molecular weight, linear polysaccharide composed of repeating subunits of glucuronic acid and N-acetylglucosamine. The structure is shown in figure 1. In vertebrates, the polymer is widely distributed through all connective tissue and has been implicated in cell-cell interaction, cell matrix adhesion, cell mobility and extracellular matrix organization (1,2). NaHA is an important tissue lubricant (3,4) and has been shown to exert a facilitating influence on wound repair (5).