Photocrosslinkable Chitosan Beads for Cell Delivery

By creating hydrogel beads we can encapsulate cells so they can be delivered to a site of interest while being differentiated to create a specific tissue. Here we present a method that replaces the current crosslinking chemical agent with a photocrosslinking agent, Irgacure, which when irradiated with UV light will crosslink our polymer and protein composite matrix. We first observed the effect of UV light on our modified chitosan by creating 30% chitosan beads in an emulsification vessel and then irradiating them with three different intensities and time exposures to a long wave length UV light (370 nm). We found that UV light is effective at crossliking our composite matrix. Further experiments have to be performed to verify the effects on the addition of collagen. This will be tested on living human dermal fibroblast cells to test the viability. Furthermore these tests will be performed on hydrogels with cells embedded inside to see the effect of UV light in the whole system. If this is found to be successful we would have a new more efficient way of creating a physiologically compatible hydrogel bead capable of holding cells and delivering them to the body.