琼脂糖在组织工程中的研究进展

Research Progress of Agarose in Tissue Engineering

琼脂糖是一种来源丰富、成本低廉的天然高分子材料,具有生物安全性和可降解性,利用其凝胶化现象可制成形状可塑的具有三维网络结构的凝胶。与其他天然材料相比,琼脂糖凝胶在机械性能上具有一定优势,如抗拉伸/压缩性、粘弹性、流变性等。其特殊的防粘连作用,使其必须与其他材料复合或者选用适宜的定型方式制成组织工程支架,以提高支架的组织相容性,用于填充、修复或者再生机体缺损组织。琼脂糖在组织工程领域的研究历史虽然不长,但在软骨、神经、骨、角膜和口腔黏膜等方面已经取得一些研究成果,其独特的微观结构和力学性能使其在软骨组织工程方面的研究最为广泛。目前,琼脂糖的组织工程研究离临床应用还有一段距离,材料制备和作用机理探索将是未来研究的重点。

Agarose,which is resourceful and low-cost,is one of the natural high polymer materials with biosecurity and biodegradability. It can be made into gel with three-dimensional network structure and plastic shape. Comparing with other natural materials,agarose have advantages in mechanical properties,such as tensile strength,resistance to compression,viscoelasticity,rheological property and so on. On account of the property of anti-adhesion,agarose tissue engineering scaffold,which is for filling,repairing or regenerating defective tissue,must be composited with other materials or custom-made in suitable ways, in order to enhance its histocompatibility. Research progresses have been made in tissue engineering,although the research history of agarose is not so long. The properties of microstructure and mechanics make it a suitable material for tissue engineering of cartilage,nerve,bone,cornea,oral mucosa,especially in the field of cartilage. So far,there is a long distance between research and clinical usage,and scaffold preparation and mechanism study may be the research hotspots of agarose in the future.