The influence of UV-radiation on hyaluronic acid and its blends with addition of collagen and chitosan

In this paper, the results regarding the influence of UV-irradiation with 254nm wavelength on the surface and mechanical properties of hyaluronic acid, hyaluronic acid/collagen and hyaluronic acid/collagen/chitosan mixtures are presented. For this study, thin films were prepared by solvent evaporation from solution of HA and mixtures made from HA/Coll and HA/Coll with 30% addition of chitosan. The surface properties of films were investigated by AFM and using contact angle measurements, allowing the calculation of surface free energy and its components. Mechanical properties of films made of biopolymeric blends before and after UV-irradiation have been investigated by mechanical testing machine.