A Study on Chitosan Coated Polycaprolactone (Ch-PCL) Microspheres Prepared via Double Emulsion Solvent Evaporation Method

Abstract:

Polycaprolactone coated with chitosan microspheres have the potential to be used as delivery systems and biosensors. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is, however hydrophobic, to improve the biofunctional and potential immobilization of PCL polymer, chitosan-coated PCL microspheres (MSs) were prepared using a double emulsion solvent evaporation method. Different particle sizes were prepared by altering five parameters. When the MSs were prepared using oil to water phase ratio or oil fraction (ϕ_o) of ϕ_o = 0.95 to ϕ_o = 0.38, the MSs average diameter (D_v) reduced from 3.86 to 3.53 µm along with its coefficient of variation (CV), reduced from 18.1 to 12.3 respectively. The MSs prepared with higher polymer concentration of 6wt.% shows higher D_v (4.51 µm) and CV (25.2) compared to 1.2wt.% of PCL, which D_v = 3.86 µm with CV of 18.1. The first homogenizer speed (H1) was increased in order to prepare smaller MSs. When H1 increased from 6 000 to 10 000 rpm, MSs D_v reduced from 3.86 to 3.45 µm along with its CV reduce from 18.1 to 16.6 for ϕ_o = 0.95. It is also the same case for ϕ_o = 0.52, where the D_v reduced from 3.70 to 3.19 µm and its CV reduce from 25.8 to 25.2. The effect of NaCl concentration on MSs preparation shows, higher NaCl concentration (1.8wt.%) produced smaller D_v (D_v = 3.86 µm) compared to lower concentration of 0.9wt.%, produced D_v = 4.51 µm for ϕ_o = 0.95. The trend also follows when the MSs were prepared for ϕ_o = 0.52. The delay in adding the NaCl shows distinct effect on D_v. For both 0.9 and 1.8 wt.% of NaCl, the D_v increase from 4.51 to 6.40 µm and 4.31 to 6.17 µm respectively. Therefore, the targeted D_v for certain application could be achieved by altering the parameters above. Finally, to study the Ch-PCL potential as enzyme immobilizer, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was used to be immobilized on to the Ch-PCL MSs. After 7 days, the HRP enzyme still show 51% activity under robust storage condition.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 1010)
• Pages: 541-548
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.1010.541
• Online since: September 2020
• Authors: Zi Yang Te, Wei Heng Yeoh, Muhammad Ashraf Shahidan, Nur Nabilah Shahidan*
• Keywords: Bioassay, Chitosan, Double Emulsion Solvent Evaporation, Polycaprolactone

References

[1] Jyothi NVN, Prasanna PM, Sakarkar SN, Prabha KS, Ramaiah PS, Srawan GY (2010) Microencapsulation techniques, factors influencing encapsulation efficiency. Journal of Microencapsulation 27:187–197.

DOI: 10.3109/02652040903131301

[2] Tallawi M, Rosellini E, Barbani N, Grazia Cascone M, Rai R, Saint-Pierre G, Boccaccini AR (2015) Strategies for the chemical and biological functionalization of scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering: A review. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 12.

DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2015.0254

[3] Du Y, Luo XL, Xu JJ, Chen HY (2007) A simple method to fabricate a chitosan-gold nanoparticles film and its application in glucose biosensor. Bioelectrochemistry 70:342–347.

DOI: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2006.05.002

[4] Numnuam A, Thavarungkul P, Kanatharana P (2014) An amperometric uric acid biosensor based on chitosan-carbon nanotubes electrospun nanofiber on silver nanoparticles. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 406:3763–3772.

DOI: 10.1007/s00216-014-7770-3

[5] Torrado S, Torrado JJ, Cadórniga R (1992) Topical application of albumin microspheres containing vitamin A drug release and availability. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 86:147–152.

DOI: 10.1016/0378-5173(92)90191-4

[6] Tzhayik O, Cavaco-Paulo A, Gedanken A (2012) Fragrance release profile from sonochemically prepared protein microsphere containers. Ultrasonics Sonochemistry 19:858–863.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2011.12.023

[7] Huang P, Yang C, Liiu J, Wang W, Guo S, Li J, Sun Y, Dong H, Deng L, Zhang J, Liu J, Dong A (2014) Improving the oral delivery efficiency of anticancer drugs by chitosan coated polycaprolactone-grafted hyaluronic acid nanoparticles. Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2:4021–4033.

DOI: 10.1039/c4tb00273c

[8] Badran MM, Alomrani AH, Harisa GI, Ashour AE, Kumar A, Yassin AE (2018) Novel docetaxel chitosan-coated PLGA/PCL nanoparticles with magnified cytotoxicity and bioavailability. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy 106:1461–1468.

DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2018.07.102

[9] Shahidan NN, Liu R, Thaiboonrod S, Alexander C, Shakesheff KM, Saunders BR (2013) Hollow colloidosomes prepared using accelerated solvent evaporation. Langmuir 29:13676–13685.

DOI: 10.1021/la402788a

[10] Matsumoto S, Kang WW (1989) Formation and applications of multiple emulsions. Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology 10:455–482.

[11] Wang J, Shi A, Agyei D, Wang Q (2017) Formulation of water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) emulsions containing trans-resveratrol. RSC Advances 7:35917–35927.

DOI: 10.1039/c7ra05945k

[12] Yang Y, Chung T, Bai X, Science WC-CE, 2000 U (2000) Effect of Preparation Conditions on Morphology and Release Profiles of Biodegradable Polymeric Microspheres Containing Protein Fabricated By Double-Emulsion Method. Elsevier 55:2223–2236.

DOI: 10.1016/s0009-2509(99)00503-5

[13] Li M, Rouaud O, Poncelet D (2008) Microencapsulation by solvent evaporation: State of the art for process engineering approaches. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 363:26–39.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2008.07.018

[14] Peng J, Dong WJ, Li L, Xu JM, Jin DJ, Xia XJ, Liu YL (2015) Effect of high-pressure homogenization preparation on mean globule size and large-diameter tail of oil-in-water injectable emulsions. Journal of Food and Drug Analysis 23:828–835.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfda.2015.04.004

[15] Silva TM, Cerize NNP, Oliveira AM (2016) The Effect of High Shear Homogenization on Physical Stability of Emulsions. International Journal of Chemistry 8:52 .

DOI: 10.5539/ijc.v8n4p52

[16] Peng ZY, Shen YQ, Li ZP (2012) Control of size and morphology of gelatin microspheres. Journal of Macromolecular Science, Part B: Physics 51:12–21.

[17] Singh A, Lal D (2006) Effect of reaction parameters on the particle sizes of crosslinked spherical phenolic beads by suspension polymerization of phenol and formaldehyde. Journal of Applied Polymer Science 100:2323–2330.

DOI: 10.1002/app.22995

[18] Hsieh YH, Shen BY, Wang YH, Lin B, Lee HM, Hsieh MF (2018) Healing of osteochondral defects implanted with biomimetic scaffolds of poly(ε-caprolactone)/hydroxyapatite and glycidyl-methacrylate-modified hyaluronic acid in a minipig. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 19.

DOI: 10.3390/ijms19041125

[19] Shalumon KT, Sowmya S, Sathish D, Chennazhi KP, Nair S V., Jayakumar R (2013) Effect of incorporation of nanoscale bioactive glass and hydroxyapatite in PCL/chitosan nanofibers for bone and periodontal tissue engineering. Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology 9:430–440.

DOI: 10.1166/jbn.2013.1559