Polyethylene glycol derivant crosslink and modify chitosan for tympanic membrane repair

This work focuses on developing a novel bioscaffold for tympanic membrane (TM) repair. A strategy to fabricate porous scaffolds is proposed, which is based on the chitosan membranes that were cross-linked and modified by tert-butyl acetoacetate esterified polyethylene glycol, while their mechanical properties and hydrophilicity were also improved. With two different crosslink methods, direct and freeze cross-linking, the chitosan-polyethylene glycol membranes were fabricated. Based on the morphology, hydrophilicity, and mechanical property, the biomedical scaffold has good enough properties for TM repair and the freeze cross-linking membrane is better. Our work provides a simple and reliable method for the preparation of bioscaffolds.