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. 2017 Jan 17;7(1):17-24.
doi: 10.1007/s13534-017-0010-y. eCollection 2017 Feb.

Rheological study of hyaluronic acid derivatives

Michael Chernos  1   2 , Dana Grecov  3   2 , Ezra Kwok  1   2 , Siziwe Bebe  4 , Oladunni Babsola  4 , Tassos Anastassiades  4
Affiliations

Rheological study of hyaluronic acid derivatives

Michael Chernos et al. Biomed Eng Lett. .

Abstract

The viscoelastic properties of four novel, low molecular weight hyaluronic acid derivatives were investigated and compared to the parent hyaluronic acid compound. Briefly, all derivatives were synthesized by first deacetylating the parent hyaluronic acid. One sample was left as such, while two others were reacytelated. The final compound, of particular interest for its anti-inflammatory properties, was butyrylated. The compounds were dissolved in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) and studied at a concentration of 5 mg/mL. Shear thinning behaviour was observed for all compounds, however, derivative samples had a lower viscosity than the parent compound at high shear rates. Viscoelastic properties were also observed to decrease as a result of the derivative preparation method. It is believed that these changes are primarily caused by a decrease in hyaluronic acid molecular weight. By increasing the concentration of the anti-inflammatory compound, it may be possible to modulate the viscoelastic properties to more closely resemble those of commercial viscosupplements. As a result, an anti-inflammatory derivative of hyaluronic acid may potentially improve upon existing viscosupplements used to treat patients who are susceptible to flare up.

Keywords: Anti-inflammatory; Osteoarthritis; Shear thinning; Viscoelastic; Viscosupplement.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with ethical standardsAll the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest in relation to the work in this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic illustration of hyaluronic acid molecule [23]
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Amplitude sweep for Sample 5. The linear viscoelastic region is clearly shown up to 10% strain
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Shear viscosity as a function of shear rate. A Newtonian plateau is observed at low shear rates for Sample 1 with shear thinning behaviour at higher shear rates. Samples 2 through 5 were not observed to demonstrate a zero-shear plateau in the investigated range. Solid lines represent the Carreau–Yassuda fit
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
a Storage and loss moduli as functions of oscillation frequency for Sample 1. A crossover of storage and loss moduli is observed at approximately 10 Hz. b Storage and loss moduli are plotted as functions of oscillation frequency for Sample 2. Gel like behaviour is observed over the observed frequency range. c Storage and loss moduli as functions of oscillation frequency for Sample 3. Gel like behaviour is observed over the observed frequency range. d Storage and loss moduli as functions of oscillation frequency for Sample 4. A crossover frequency of approximately 4.2 Hz is observed. e Storage and loss moduli as functions of oscillation frequency for Sample 5. A crossover frequency of approximately 2.8 Hz is observed
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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