Hyaluronic Acid Derivative with Improved Versatility for Processing and Biological Functionalization

A hydrophobic/amino functionalized derivative of hyaluronic acid (HA-EDA-C₁₈ ) has been processed by salt leaching technique as porous scaffold without need of chemical crosslinking. Aim of this work is to demonstrate the improved versatility of HA-EDA-C₁₈ in terms of processing and biological functionalization. In particular, the chemical procedure to tether thiol bearing RGD peptide has been described. Moreover, the possibility to load and to control the release of slightly water soluble effectors has been demonstrated by using dexamethasone. First, the swelling and degradation profiles of the scaffolds have been investigated, then the evaluation of metabolic activity of bovine chondrocytes, the histological analysis, and microscope observations has been performed to evaluate cellular adhesion and proliferation as well as the production of collagen type II.