
98 Biomaterials for Bone Regeneration
4.3 Polysaccharide-based materials
Polysaccharides are the second large biopolymer class present in the ECM,
in which several glycosaminoglycans with disaccharide repeating units are
present (e.g. hyaluronic acid (HA) or chondroitin sulfate (CS), see Fig. 4.4).
HA is the most prominent of these polysaccharides, and is in vivo responsi-
ble, e.g. for regulation of the water content of tissues as well as contributing
to the viscoelastic behavior of cartilage, therefore it has been applied a lot to
cartilage repair (Wang et al ., 2011). HA is composed of
D -glucuronic acid-
( β 1 → 3)- D - N -acetylglucosamine-( ...