The 1C6 monoclonal antibody to the hyaluronic acid-binding region weakly stained a 65-kD component in immunoblots of the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans of brain, and the 8A4 monoclonal antibody, which recognizes two epitopes in the polypeptide portion of link protein, produced strong staining of a 45-kD component present in the brain proteoglycans. These antibodies were utilized to examine t...

In the central nervous system, numerous acute injuries and neurodegenerative disorders, as well as implanted devices or biomaterials engineered to enhance function result in the same outcome: excess inflammation leads to gliosis, cytotoxicity, and/or formation of a glial scar that collectively exacerbate injury or prevent healthy recovery. With the intent of creating a system to model glial sca...

Biomaterials are playing a vital role in our day-to-day life. Hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid), a biomaterial, receives special attention among them. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a polyanionic natural polymer occurring as linear polysaccharide composed of glucuronic acid and N-acetylglucosamine repeats via a β-1,4 linkage. It is the most versatile macromolecule present in the connective tissues of all v...

The sine qua non of malignancy is the ability of tumor cells to migrate and invade surrounding tissue. There are many substances that have been described that enhance cell motility and hyaluronic acid is prominent among these. Hyaluronic acid is a high molecular weight alternating disaccharide polymer found in abundance in extracellular matrices whenever rapid cell proliferation or tissue regen...

Hyaluronic acid hydrogels modified with polyclonal anti-Nogo-66 receptor antibody were developed in order to promote regeneration in the injured CNS. These modified hydrogels were intended not only to deliver antibodies, but also to serve as a scaffold for neural regeneration following their implantation into injured tissue. Since unmodified hyaluronic acid-hydrogels do not support cell attachm...

A new method to prepare nanostructured hybrid hydrogels by incorporating well-defined poly(oligo (ethylene oxide) monomethyl ether methacrylate) (POEO(300)MA) nanogels of sizes 110-120 nm into a larger three-dimensional (3D) matrix was developed for drug delivery scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Rhodamine B isothiocyanate-labeled dextran (RITC-Dx) or fluorescein isothiocyanate-lab...

Photocrosslinked methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) hydrogels support chondrogenesis of encapsulated human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). However, the covalent crosslinks formed via chain polymerization in these hydrogels are hydrolytically non-degradable and restrict cartilage matrix spatial distribution and cell spreading. Meanwhile, cells are known to remodel their surrounding extracellul...

OBJECTIVE The incidence of heart valve disease is increasing worldwide and the number of heart valve replacements is expected to increase in the future. By mimicking the main tissue structures and properties of heart valve, tissue engineering offers new options for the replacements. Applying an appropriate scaffold in fabricating tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) is of importance since it ...

Within the last 13 years hyaluronic acid has been isolated from a variety of sources (1): umbilical cord, vitreous humor, synovial fluid, tumors, and hemolytic streptococci. These mucopolysaccharides all have essentially the same chemical composition, equimolecular portions of acetylglucosamine and glucuronic acid, but vary greatly in viscosity. Hyaluronic acid was first isolated by Meyer and P...