Calorimetric analysis of gelatine-glycosaminoglycans blend system.

Gelatine is one of the most valuable natural polymers used for drug delivery applications. Gelatine-GAGs based composite system has been shown to act as good scaffolds for tissue engineering. The objective of the present study is to investigate the calorimetric properties of microporous gelatine-GAGs based blend, which were modified by co-crosslinking with a naturally occurring crosslinking agent genipin. The melting temperature (T(m)), enthalpy change (ΔH(m)) and heat capacity change (ΔC(p)) were systematically calculated over the experimentally observed systems using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The thermoporometry results suggest that the concentration of the glycosaminoglycans plays an important role in the pore size distribution of the blend matrices. The circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy study, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies provide the valuable information about the structural features of the biodegradable blend that can be utilized for various biomedical applications. The results provide new insights into the thermal stability of blend and suggest potential strategies for its manipulation.