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CHITOSAN

Crawling from crab-shells to Bio-textiles

Submitted to:
Kayode Adekunle

S US TAI NA BL E M AT ERIA LS

Submitted by: Ubaid ur Rehman


[X080310@utb.hb.se]
Abstract:

Chitosan, after cellulose, is the most abundant natural amino polysaccharide and is annually
produced roughly around as much as cellulose. It is produced by deacetylation of chitin which is
obtained from marine crustaceans. Chitosan, unlike chitin is soluble in aqueous acidic medium
and is used in many applications such as food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and biomedical. In this
paper the use of chitosan in bio-textiles for use in medical is discussed.

Introduction:

Chitin, the main source of chitosan occurs in nature as ordered crystalline micro fibrils
forming structural components in the exoskeleton of arthropods or in the cell walls of fungi and
yeast. It is produced by a number of other living organisms in the lower plant and animal
kingdoms, serving in many functions where reinforcement and strength are required.

Despite its widespread occurrence, the main commercial sources of chitin have been crab
and shrimp shells up to now. Industrially, chitin is extracted from crustaceans by acid treatment
to dissolve calcium carbonate and then treated with alkali to solubilise proteins. The extracted
chitin is again treated for decolourization purpose to get a colourless product. It is then graded in
terms of purity and colour because the residual protein and pigment can cause problems for
further use, especially for biomedical purpose. Finally chitin is partially deacetylated under
alkaline conditions to get chitosan.

Fig. 1 Structure of cellulose, chitin, chitosan


SWOT Analysis:

STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES
 Hi absorbency.  Mass availability; mass production
 Ease of application and removal.  Under extensive research for various
 Bacterial barrier. medical applications.
 Comfort.  Other technical applications areas
 Haemostatic.
 pH sensitive.
 Sustainable

WEAKNESSES THREATS
 Wet spun.  Validation process gratification
 Cost (as much as 7.5$/10g).  Under investigation whether if it is
 pH sensitive. suitable for people allergic to shellfish
 Underutilized. or not?!
 Producing facilities
 Government (legislations)

Medical applications of Chitosan:

The cationic character of chitosan is unique as it is the only pseudo-natural cationic


polymer. The film forming properties (which is because it is soluble in acidic medium) and
biological activity of chitosan invite the researchers to explore its potential use as a biomaterial. It
is extensively being used in wound dressings by Hemcon as war bandage because of its unique
haemostatic nature, low toxicity and tensile strength retention in many situations. It has been
tested on US marines in Iraq and made significant improvements in fatalities due to blood loss.

In burn patients, where standard of care involves application silver sulfadiazine cream,
silver toxicity is a major concern because of reduced skin barrier. Membranes, including
chitosan, reduce this toxicity by entrapment of silver ions in the matrix. Chitosan is studied for
stimulating the growth of fibroblast in the wound and promote the tissue growth.

Biocompatible characteristic of chitosan makes it possible to be used as surgical sutures; it


is useful as absorbable suture material. Chitin sutures resist attack in bile, urine and pancreatic
juice, which are problem areas with other absorbable sutures.
Chitosan is non-toxic and easily bio-absorbable with gel forming ability at low pH. It also
has antacid and antiulcer activities which prevent or weaken drug irritation in the stomach.
Moreover, chitosan matrix formulations appear to float and gradually swell in an acid medium.
All these interesting properties of chitosan make this natural polymer an ideal candidate for
controlled drug release formulations. Due to the versatility in processing of chitosan, controlled
drug delivery can be achieved in several ways such as using chitosan based hydro-gels, chitosan
tablets because they are reported to be useful in pharmaceutical preparations, chitosan
microcapsules/microspheres (a spherical particle with size from 50nm to 2mm, containing a core
substance) and chitosan based trans-dermal drug delivery system.

Chitosan possesses all the properties that are necessary for manufacturing an ideal contact
lens. It includes Optical clarity, mechanical stability, sufficient optical correction, gas
permeability (specifically towards oxygen), wet ability, and immunological compatibility.
Contact lenses made from chitosan are clear, tough and posses other physical characteristics for
example modulus, tensile & tear strength, elongation, water content and oxygen permeability.
Additionally the anti-microbial and wound healing quality of chitosan in conjunction with good
film forming ability make it suitable for development of ocular (related to eye) bandage lenses.

Polymeric nano-fibers that mimic the structure and function of the natural extracellular
matrix (ECM) are of great interest in tissue engineering as scaffolding materials to restore,
maintain or improve the function of human tissues. The natural ECMs in the body are mainly
composed of two classes of extracellular macromolecules: proteo-glycans and fibrous proteins
with fiber diameters ranging from 50 to 150 nm, depending on tissue type. Studies show that the
material size feature could substantially influence the morphology and function of cells grown on
the ECM. The cells attachment and proliferation were found to be good on micro and nano-
structured materials.

During a study chitosan/PEO nanofibrous scaffolds promoted the attachment of human


osteoblasts and chondrocytes and maintained characteristic cell morphology and viability
throughout the period of study. Chitosan nanofibrous matrix is of particular interest in tissue
engineering for controlled drug release and tissue remodeling. According to another study
Chitosan/PEO nano-fibers showed the biocompatibility with chondrocytes. Cells were attached to
the chitosan/PEO nano-fiber matrix and the results indicated that the electro-spun chitosan/PEO
mats could be used for cartilage tissue repair.

Conclusion:

Chitosan has a wide range of applications in various fields of science. They may be
employed for example to solve numerous problems in environmental and biomedical
engineering. Chitosan can be easily molded to various forms and its derivatives are digested in
vivo, thus it appears that this material can be a most interesting candidate for use in biomedical
applications. Another advantage of chitosan over other polysaccharides is that its chemical
structure allows specific modifications without too many difficulties, i.e. specific groups can be
introduced to design polymers for selected applications.

Chitosan is a natural material with virtually no environmental impact except that a lot of
chemicals are used to extract from the source, yet it should be remembered that it is obtained by
making use of the waste material rejected from fisheries which a renewable resource if used
responsibly.

References:

Marguerite Rinaudo, 2006, Chitin and chitosan: Properties and applications.

Majeti N.V. Ravi Kumar, 2000, a review of chitin and chitosan applications.

Hitoshi Sashiwa*, Sei-ichi Aiba, 2004, chemically modified chitin and chitosan as biomaterials.

Bhattarai N, Edmondson D, Veiseh O, Matsen FA, Zhang M., 2005, Electro-spun chitosan-based
Nano-fibers and their cellular compatibility.

Mo X, Chen Z, Weber HJ., 2007, Electrospun nanofibers of collagen-chitosan and P(LLA-CL)


for tissue engineering.

Shigemasa Y, et al., 1996, Biotechnology Genet Eng Rev.

Tsipouras N, et al., 1997, Clinical Chemistry.

http://www.drugs.com/npp/chitosan.html, Feb’10.

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