Fabrication of alginate–gelatin crosslinked hydrogel microcapsules and evaluation of the microstructure and physico-chemical properties (original) (raw)
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Carbohydrate Polymers
Alginate-based hydrogels can find uses in a wide range of applications, including in the encapsulation field. This type of hydrogels is usually ionically crosslinked using calcium sources giving rise to products with limited internal crosslinking. In this work, it is hypothesized that the combination of alginate crosslinked by calcium chloride (external crosslinking; ionic mechanism) with gelatin crosslinked by transglutaminase (internal crosslinking; enzymatic induced mechanism) can be used to tailor the swelling behavior of alginate-based hydrogel microspheres. A systematic study was conducted by covering process variables such as gelatin content, TGase concentration, and CaCl 2 contact time, added by statistic tools as central composite rotatable design (CCRD), principal component analysis (PCA) and multiobjective optimization, to map their effect on the resulting water content after production (expressed as swelling ratio), and swelling properties at pH 3 and 7. Among the studied variables, particle's swelling was mostly affected by the gelatin content and transglutaminase concentration.
Journal of Macromolecular Science, Part B, 2012
Cell encapsulation represents an alternative nonviral technique to treat multiple diseases, leading to a reduction or even absence of administration of immunosuppressants. Hydrogels have been introduced as novel materials suitable for cell encapsulation. This study involves agarose–gelatin blend hydrogels with four different weight percentage ratios (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75) of agarose to gelatin. Prepared blend hydrogels were assessed in terms of rheological behavior (gel point by using complex viscosity), cell attachment (hemocytometer), cell viability and cytotoxicity (3-(3,4-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazoliium bromide, MTT assay), and mechanical and integral stability (Bradford test and shear force rupture assay, respectively). Based on the obtained rheological experimental results, the sol-gel transition point for 50:50 was in the physiological condition range (35°C–37°C). The percent of nonattached cells on the surface of the hydrogel decreased from 92% for the 100:0 sample to 46.3% for the 50:50 sample, and the cell viability was more than 95%. A good structural integrity was achieved for samples with weight ratio of 50:50; 20.195% gelatin was released during the 24 h in phosphate buffer solution at 25°C and the mechanical stability of agarose–gelatin microcapsules under shear force were improved about 14% rather than pure agarose microcapsule.
Materials Science and Engineering: C, 2013
Micropipette aspiration and confocal fluorescence microscopy were used to study the structure and mechanical properties of calcium alginate hydrogel beads (A beads), as well as A beads that were additionally coated with poly-L-lysine (P) and sodium alginate (A) to form, respectively, AP and APA hydrogels. A beads were found to continue curing for up to 500 h during storage in saline, due to residual calcium chloride carried over from the gelling bath. In subsequent saline washes, micropipette aspiration proved to be a sensitive indicator of gel weakening and calcium loss. Aspiration tests were used to compare capsule stiffness before and after citrate extraction of calcium. They showed that the initial gel strength is largely due to the calcium alginate gel cores, while the long term strength is solely due to the poly-L-lysine-alginate polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) shells. Confocal fluorescence microscopy showed that calcium chloride exposure after PLL deposition led to PLL redistribution into the hydrogel bead, resulting in thicker but more diffuse and weaker PEC shells. Adding a final alginate coating to form APA capsules did not significantly change the PEC membrane thickness and stiffness, but did speed the loss of calcium from the bead core.
Synthesis and Characterization of Alginate-Gelatin Hydrogels with Potential Use in Biomedical Field
2022
This work concerns with obtaining and characterization of new hydrogels based on sodium alginate and gelatin in the form of cross-linked polymer networks, aimed at medical applications, for example controlled release of bioactive agents (pharmaceutical industry) and bioinks (regenerative medicine). Our synthesis strategy was based on the use of mild, ecological reaction conditions in the absence of crosslinking agents and organic oxidants. Only industrially available sodium alginate and gelatin from leather wastes, produced at micro-pilot level at INCDTP-ICPI, were used, without the presence of any additional crosslinking agents, to test their ability to form strong 3D gels. Tunable physical-chemical and mechanical properties of the hydrogels have were obtained by varying the ratio sodium alginate: gelatin. Newly synthesized hydrogels were characterized by both analytical methods, such as ATR-FTIR, TG-DTG and SEM, and standard tests for mechanical resistance.
Smart porous microparticles based on gelatin/sodium alginate
Porous microparticles of different sizes were prepared by polyelectrolyte complexation of biopolymers gelatine A and sodium alginate for microencapsulation of food bioactives. The optimum pH and ratio between the polymers sodium alginate and gelatine for maximum complexation was found as 3.7 and 1:3.5 respectively. Effect of various factors like amount of surfactant, concentration of polymer and crosslinker on the formation, size and porous/nonporous nature of the microparticles were investigated. The particles’ diameter on swelling at pH = 7.4 was twice that at pH = 1.2 indicating the pH responsiveness. These microparticles were used as carrier for ascorbic acid. The surface morphology and sizes of the microparticles were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) study indicated the formation of polyelectrolyte complex between gelatine and sodium alginate and successful encapsulation of ascorbic acid into the microparticles. The microparticles were further characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) study.
Effect of molar weight of gelatin in the coating of alginate microparticles
Polímeros, 2021
The protein adsorption on the porous alginate microparticles was evaluated in regards to the coating ability and this protective effect during gastrointestinal assay. The coating was performed at suitable pH for optimized electrostatic interaction between protein and alginate. Concentrations of gelatin (HGE) and their hydrolysates (Collagel® (MGE) (> 10 kDa) and Fortigel® (LGE) (3 kDa)) from 1 to 10% (w/w) were tested. Higher protein adsorption was observed in the highest concentration of protein in solution and the amount adsorbed was inversely proportional to the degree of hydrolysis with 47.3, 41.4 and 29.3% of protein adsorbed when HGE, MGE and LGE were used, respectively. The particles that showed higher protein adsorption were submitted to gastrointestinal in vitro assay. In gastric simulation, 39.1, 41.8 and 49.0% of protein from HGE, MGE and LGE were solubilized while 81.3, 61.5 and 95.2% were solubilized after 5 h under enteric conditions.
Journal of Chemistry, 2021
To understand the abilities of Ca-alginate microcapsules and their specific applications in different fields, it is necessary to determine the physicochemical and structural properties of those formulated microcapsules. In this work, we aimed to study the effect of alginate concentration in the improvement of the encapsulation efficiency (EE) and on the release of phenolic and flavonoid substances. The relationship between the structure of the encapsulated bioactive substance and Ca-alginate network and their effect on the EE and release kinetics have been investigated. The incorporation, structure, morphology, and phase properties of all elaborated materials were characterized by UV-spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (DRX). The results indicate that increasing the polymer concentration increases the EE and decreases the loading capacity (LC), whereas the effect of alginate polymer concentration on the relea...