Release of growth factors, cytokines and therapeutic molecules by hyaluronan-based hydrogels

Hyaluronan (HA) is a highly biocompatible biopolymer that is widely used for a variety of therapeutic purposes including surgical preparations, adhesion prevention, viscosupplementation and drug and cytokine delivery. Delivery can be accomplished effectively when HA-based carriers are synthesized in the form of hydrogels, though doing so normally requires chemical modification of the native HA structure. Solute delivery from HA-based gels can be either "simple", that is from a gel not including separate components intended to control release, or "regulated" when specific components are included for that purpose. A variety of modified forms of HA have been developed and used for delivery of desired molecules in therapeutic, clinical, veterinary and laboratory research environments, and the number of such applications is likely to grow in future years.