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[1]. Alginate hydrogels are commonly used to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds[3], bioinks for 3D bioprinting[2][4], and nanocarriers for drug &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.[5] 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. [6]