IN SITU FORMING HYDROGELS OF HYALURONIC ACID AND INULIN DERIVATIVES FOR CARTILAGE REGENERATION

An in situ forming hydrogel obtained by crosslinking of amino functionalized hyaluronic acid derivativeswith divinylsulfone functionalized inulin (INU-DV) has been here designed and characterized. In par-ticular two hyaluronic acid derivatives bearing respectively a pendant ethylenediamino (EDA) portion(HA-EDA) and both EDA and octadecyl pendant groups (HA-EDA-C18) were crosslinked through an azo-Michael reaction with INU-DV. Gelation time and consumption of DV portions have been evaluated onhydrogel obtained using HA-EDA and HA-EDA-C18derivatives with a concentration of 3% w/v and a ratio80/20 w/w respect to the crosslinker INU-DV. The presence of pendant C18chains improves mechanicalperformances of hydrogels and decreases the susceptibility to hyaluronidase hydrolysis. Bovine chon-drocytes, encapsulated during crosslinking, sufficiently survive and efficiently proliferate until 28 daysof analysis.