| Postsurgical adhesions are undesirable, yet common attachments between tissues and organs. Increased morbidity including small bowel obstruction, infertility in women and chronic pelvic pain, has increasingly taxed the health care system and has subsequently led to the development of a number of treatments, including physical barriers. A suitable barrier must be biodegradable, biocompatible and have the ability to adhere to cells without mechanical attachment. An in situ setting hydrogel barrier based on the cationic polysaccharide chitosan is being proposed as an adhesion prevention modality. Unfortunately, chitosan suffers from minimal water solubility; therefore, glycol chitosan, a water soluble derivative, was selected as the starting material in this study.; The initial glycol chitosan was characterized and then fractionated with nitrous acid to further enhance its water solubility and ultimately, its rate of crosslinking, while facilitating its application in vivo. The fractionated glycol chitosan was then modified to include photocrosslinkable moieties, specifically acrylamide groups, through the coupling of acrylic acid to glycol chitosan with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC·HCl). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
