Overview

Chitin is a unique biopolymer based on the N-acetyl-glucosamine monomer. Over the years, there has been much interest in exploiting this biopolymer and its variants for a myriad of biomedical applications. Chitin and its derivatives have been shown to be useful as wound dressing materials, drug delivery vehicles, and increasingly a candidate for tissue engineering. The potential for this biomaterial is immense and will continue to increase; studies are underway to explore its utilization in new biomedical applications as well as to investigate the chemistry of extending its capability.

11.1 Introduction

Traditionally, implants or body part replacements were fabricated from inert biomaterials such as metals, ceramics, and synthetic polymers. In recent years, science and technology trends of medical devices have been directed at more temporal tissue-engineered implants, which are fabricated using a combination of cells and biodegradable biomaterials. These implants are expected to perform transient roles without upsetting the body s functions and eventually be replaced by the body s own cells with the biodegradable property (which permits the biomaterial to be removed in a non-toxic manner). The use of biopolymers as biomaterials for such purposes is becoming increasingly popular as materials derived from nature are expected to exhibit greater compatibility with humans, and may be bioactive and biodegradable. Among the candidate biopolymers for this purpose is chitin.

11.2 Chitin Occurrence and Isolation

Chitin is a co-polymer of N-acetyl-glucosamine and N-glucosamine units (Figure 11 1) randomly or block distributed throughout the...