Chitosan: Potential Applications in Pharmaceutical Industries and Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is related to the high potential of chitosan in applications in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. Chitosan, obtained by alkaline deacetylation from chitin, is a basic natural polysaccharide having excellent biocompatibility features and antimicrobial activity which foreseen its potential in many medical applications such as drug delivery systems, wound-healing agents, and scaffolds for peripheral nerve and chondral repair. The main drawback of chitosan are the weak mechanical properties and high solubility and fast release in aqueous solution. Different strategies can be exploited in order to improve them, such as physical or chemical crosslinking, formation of blends with other polymers (synthetic or natural-based) or composite with the addition of appropriate fillers.

All researchers working in the field are cordially invited to contribute original research papers or reviews to this Special Issue of Materials, which focuses on new chitosan processing methods, on the manufacturing of chitosan-based scaffolds and hydrogels for tissue engineering, on the design of innovative chitosan-based drug delivery systems, as well as on the characterization of chemical–physical properties with advanced analyses.

Dr. Piergiorgio Gentile
Dr. Chiara Tonda-Turo
Guest Editors

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