Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

Hyaluronic acid (HA), an immunoneutral polysaccharide that is ubiquitous in the human body, is crucial for many cellular and tissue functions and has been in clinical use for over thirty years. When chemically modified, HA can be transformed into many physical forms-viscoelastic solutions, soft or stiff hydrogels, electrospun fibers, non-woven meshes, macroporous and fibrillar sponges, flexible sheets, and nanoparticulate fluids-for use in a range of preclinical and clinical settings. Many of these forms are derived from the chemical crosslinking of pendant reactive groups by addition/condensation chemistry or by radical polymerization. Clinical products for cell therapy and regenerative medicine require…