Chemical modifications of hyaluronic acid for the synthesis of derivatives for a broad range of biomedical applications

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is widely used for numerous medical applications, such as viscosupplementation, eye surgery and drug delivery. A broad range of HA-based materials have been developed and described for the enhancement, modulation and control of its therapeutic action, based on chemical modification of polysaccharides. The purpose of this paper is to review the various chemical modification methods and synthetic routes to obtain HA derivatives, encompassing all applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.