Sulfated Polysaccharides

The extracellular matrix of many tissues has a high negative fixed density charge due to the abundance of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). In the TEB lab we have engineered several versions of sulfated polysaccharides (sulfated alginate, sulfated hyaluronic acid, and sulfated chitosan) to mimic the properties of natural GAGs. These biomaterials exhibit novel biological properties compared with their unmodified counterparts, mostly due to their augmented interactions with growth factors, cytokines, and chemokines. We explore their potential as growth factor delivery systems as well as in tissue engineering scaffolds.