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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Dairy and Functional Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #271258
Title: Hydrogels from biopolymers as carriers for the controlled release of biologically active substances

Author
item Liu, Linshu
item KOST, JOSEPH - Ben Gurion University Of Negev
item YAN, FAN - Vanderbilt University
item YAM, KEITH - Rutgers University
item Hotchkiss, Arland
item SPIRO, ROBERT - Rcs Consulting

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/7/2011
Publication Date: 11/8/2011
Citation: Liu, L.S., Kost, J., Yan, F., Yam, K.L., Hotchkiss, A.T., Spiro, R.C. 2011. Hydrogels from biopolymers as carriers for the controlled release of biologically active substances. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Biohydrogels. November 8-12, 2011, Florence, Italy. p. 69.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Biopolymers are now considered ubiquitous across a wide range of biomedical and functional food industries. Typical biopolymers, such as hyaluronate, collagen, chitosan, pectin, and alginate, and the living organism environment they are derived from, have been intensively investigated for decades. Industrial biopolymers are found in exudates or extracts from animal or plant tissues, flours from seeds and grains, or can be produced by bacterial or enzyme fermentation. Biopolymers can swell in water or physiological fluids, and can be cross-linked under certain conditions to form hydrogels, that can absorb up to thousands of times their dry weight of water. Many biopolymers have unique functional groups, and/or small peptide/sugar segments, facilitating specific receptor interactions. Examples include cell recognition of hyaluronate via the CD44 receptor, cell membrane binding of pectin via its galactose residues and galectins receptor. In addition, most biopolymers are biocompatible, degradable, or can be eliminated by metabolism. Collectively, these properties render biopolymers valuable and attractive for biomedical and functional food industry applications. In this presentation, we will report our research focusing on the utilization of biohydrogels for (1) drug delivery systems (DDS), (2) tissue engineering, and (3) active food packaging.