Figure 5.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of self-crosslinked oxidized alginate-carboxymethyl chitosan hydrogels at three different weight ratios (4:1, 3:1 and 2:1) after lyophilization showed the highly porous structure of the hydrogels. The hydrogels with higher weight ratio of OAlg showed smaller pore sizes, higher porosity, and a less homogenous distribution of pore size. Data are shown as mean and error bars represent the standard deviation of two independent experimental replicates (* statistical significance is indicated as ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05).