ABSTRACT
Polysaccharides have long been recognized as a unique family of polymeric materials with an array of properties that have made them indispensable for applications ranging from adhesives to viscosity modifiers. The characteristics have included such features as high swelling ratios in aqueous media, environmentally controlled gellation properties, high-viscosity solutions at low concentrations, and so forth. As a result, they have found wide acceptance as food and drug additives designed to enhance rehydration, texture, and various other physical properties. Over the past 20 years, the biological properties of a variety of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides have been explored and a growing body of work has served to raise their profile as mediators and modulators of receptor-based phenomena such as cell signaling and direct cell-cell and cell-pathogen interactions. Yet despite their recognized strengths and intriguing properties, these materials have remained underutilized as components of implantable material structures. However, in recent years the explosion of research in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has created a growing demand for biologically active materials whose properties may be harnessed to facilitate tissue assembly and organization. As a result, more attention is being paid to saccharide-based materials for implant applications.
