CHITOSAN FOR MEDICAL APPLICATION (REVIEW)

The short overview describes some natural polysaccharide chitosan (CS) applications in practical medicine, in particular tissue engineering. History of chitosan discovery, its synthesis, hysicochemical and spectral(IR) data are presented. We described some CS-hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds and more complicated systems based on two biopolymers: CS and sodium alginate (ALG), which were obtained in the Bionanocomposite laboratory of Sumy State University (Sumy, Ukraine). On the one hand, these polymers are the most perspective because they have bacteriostatic properties for a vast number of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria; high biocompatibility towards the connective tissue; low toxicity; an ability to improve regenerative processes during wounds healing; and degradation ability with the creation of chemotaxic activity towards fibroblasts and osteoblasts. On the other hand, formation of nanosized (25?75 nm) calcium deficient hydroxyapatite (cdHA) particles in the polymer scaffold approaches the derived material to the biogenic bone tissue, which can provide its more effective implantation. Also, an accent was made on antibacterial CS properties, including the complexes with metal ions, biopolymer systems for control drug delivery with a prolong action. Modern direction in chitosan studies ? electroformation of chitosan fiber (“Nanospider” technology) is also discussed.