Avtor/Urednik		Erman, Andreja; Veranič, Peter
Naslov		The use of chitosan in basic studies and clinical application in urinary bladder epithelium
Tip		članek
Vir		In: Mackay RG, Tait JM, editors. Handbook of chitosan research and applications. New York: Nova Science Publishers,
Leto izdaje		2011
Obseg		str. 289-300
Jezik		eng
Abstrakt		Chitosan is a cationic polysaccharide mainly used as an absorption enhancer. Its known low toxicity for most tissues gave it a wide applicability in the local delivery of pharmaceuticals to selected tissues. The positive charge of the chitosan enables it to attach to the mainly negatively charged proteoglycans that cover the apical surface of most epithelial cells and allow a gradual release of the drugs trapped in this polysaccharide cage. The intravesical application of chitosan to urinary bladder recently revealed an unpredicted deteriorating effect on superficial epithelial cells. This discovery broadens the application of chitosan to basic research of urinary bladder regeneration and gave it a possible application in treating chronic bacterial cystitis and detachment of superficial urothelial tumors. The presented commentary examines our current understanding of the effects of chitosan on urinary bladder epithelial cells in normal rodent bladder, with its concentration and time dependent effects including reversible dysfunction of tight junctions at mildest conditions, over selective removal of superficial epithelial cells and at the severest conditions the complete eradication of the urinary bladder epithelium down to the basal lamina. Its local and very controllable effects make it a perfect model system for the studies of urothelial tissue regeneration without involving inflammatory side effects. The stimulated exfoliation of the bladder epithelium provides a new and very intriguing model for the removal of intracellular pools of uropathogenic E.coli responsible for the majority of recurrent uroinfections and possibly enables a noninvasive removal of superficial bladder tumors predictably with fewer side effects in comparison to classical treatment.