Novel polysaccharide hydrogels: characterization and properties

New chemical hydrogels, potentially suitable for biome- dical applications, have been synthesized and character- ized by 13C NMR, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The polysaccharide components of these hydrogels are hyaluronane, alginate and carboxymethylcellulose, while the novel cross-linking procedure consists of activating the carboxylate moieties by 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide CMPJ and using 1,3-diaminopropane as a chemical bridge. Varying the amount of CMPJ three series of hydrogels were obtained with different cross- linking degrees (5, 50, 100%). Their percentages were determined by 13C NMR and FT-IR analysis. The morphology of the gels was studied by scanning electron- microscopy and the pore sizes were determined in order to find a relationship with the swelling properties. Cell adhesion, using human hepatocytes, and platelet adhesion studies on the different series of cross-linked compounds allowed us to envisage their utilization as extracellular matrix materials and cardiovascular bio- materials.