What about the viral safety of chitosan? Here, we would like to present an interesting publication about the viral safety of chitosan. Chitosan can be applied as a virus-free biopolymer for medical products in human, as the deacetylation process of chitin is sufficient for virus inactivation, shown by Park et al (2015). The researchers from Korea used chitin from Heppe Medical Chitosan to show that viruses are efficiently inactivated during the deacetylation process from chitin to chitosan.

Regenerative medicine is looking for structures to support the self-healing capacities of the human body. The implant scaffolds need to induce cell proliferation and promote reformation of the tissue. To create high-performance implants, adjustable degradation rates of the biomaterials, interconnected pores and functional surfaces are important. Due to their unique characteristics, chitosans are perfectly suitable to fulfill those requirements of regenerative medizin, due to their unique characteristics. In the following, we want to present you two highly interesting studies from research in this field.

The development of a strong bond between implant surface and the surrounding bone substance, called osseointegration is important for successful integration of a dental implant. The coating of dental implants with chitosan is a promising approach to enable an accelerated and improved integration. In the following, we present two publications about chitosan-based coatings for dental implants.

Functional coatings are applied to improve resistance of implants like artificial heart valves or coronary stents against various impacts in the human body. One problem is the formation of biofilms on the implant surface, which limits communication of the implant with the surrounding area and might induce inflammatory reactions. In addition, nature of the implant material can promote the formation of blood clots, which leads to blocked arteries.