Alginate Aldehyde

Alginate is an anionic polysaccharide that is widely used in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications due to its non-animal origin, low toxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Alginate hydrogels are commonly used to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds, bioinks for 3D bioprinting, and nanocarriers for drug and gene delivery.

Alginate is commonly crosslinked into a hydrogel via ionic-crosslinking with divalent cations (e.g., Ca²⁺). To prevent matrix degradation, alginate can be functionalized with reactive groups that can be chemically crosslinked, such as aldehydes. Aldehyde- functionalized alginate can be used to prepare hydrogels by reaction with amine groups, such as gelatin through Schiff-base reaction to form a chemical hydrogel. This material can be used in a variety of biomedical applications such as the delivery of drugs, cells, or biomolecules in different tissues, wound healing, and muscle and bone tissue engineering.