Preparation of heparin-functionalized microspheres and study on their adsorption characteristic for basic protein lysozyme

Development of CaCO3 microsphere-based composite hydrogel for dual delivery of growth factor and Ca to enhance bone regeneration

Injectable scaffolds have attracted much attention because of their minimum surgical invasiveness. However, limited osteogenic induction property and low mechanical properties hampered their application in bone tissue engineering. CaCO3 microspheres, which possess osteoinductivity, rough surfaces and specific binding sites for BMP-2, were first fabricated; after BMP-2 uploading, microspheres were further entrapped in fibrin-glue hydrogel. CaCO3 microspheres were co-functionalized with casein and heparin. To obtain a high encapsulation of heparin and thus BMP-2 uploading, along with controlled release and simultaneous maintenance of the presence of vaterite which had osteogenic induction property, fabrication parameters were optimized and microspheres were characterized using XRD, FITR and SEM. The formed CaCO3 had a microsphere morphology of ∼1 μm. Both vaterite and calcite phases were present and the relative amount of calcite phase increased with the amount of heparin. Sample 25 mM_4-1Hep with the highest loading amount of heparin was selected as carrier for BMP-2 and BMP-2 loaded CaCO3 microspheres were further entrapped in fibrin-glue hydrogel (FC-B). For the as-prepared composite hydrogel, mechanical properties were characterized and the presence of CaCO3 significantly elevated the tensile strength; controlled release of BMP-2 was sustained until day 21. Based on ALP activity, alizarin red staining and RT-PCR, in vitro osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) was found to be significantly enhanced under induction of FC-B. Rabbit tibia bone defect model was applied to evaluate its in vivo performance. After implantation for 4 weeks, presence of composite hydrogel was observed in defects. After 8 weeks, bone defects of FC-B group were nearly completely healed. Using the fact that autologous scaffolds can be derived based on fibrin-glue hydrogel, the well-designed BMP-2 loaded fibrin-glue composite hydrogel demonstrated good potential in bone tissue engineering.

Heparin-grafted PVA hydrogels: a material for the optical part of artificial cornea

Heparin (Hep) was grafted to a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel surface by using the covalent grafting method. The structure of the modified hydrogel was determined from Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The thermal stability of the samples was investigated by thermogravimetry–differential thermal analysis. The effects of the concentration of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (kh550) and Hep on visible light transmittance, moisture content, equilibrium swelling, hydrophilicity and percentage of Hep sodium release of the composite hydrogel were studied. The visible light transmittance of the modified PVA hydrogel was above 94%. The time of swelling equilibrium was about 60 min and the equilibrium swelling ratio ranged from 3·0 to 3·5. The hydrophilicity was enhanced, and the static water contact angle decreased from 41 to 28°. The bioeffects of the PVA–kh550–Hep hydrogel were evaluated by studying cell adhesion and proliferation. During the adhesion assay in vitro, cell adhesion significantly decreased after the interfaces had been modified with Hep. The Cell Counting Kit-8 assay showed that the biocompatibility of the PVA–kh550–Hep hydrogel improved obviously compared to that of pure PVA. The experimental results demonstrated that the PVA–kh550–Hep hydrogel had good stability, bioactivity and biocompatibility, suggesting its potential applications in artificial corneas.

Preparation of crosslinked poly (acryloyloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride) microsphere and its adsorption and mechanism towards shikimic acid

Shikimic acid (SA) is a key raw material for the synthesis of the antiviral drug, but its extraction and separation from plants is still limited. Crosslinked poly (acryloyloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride, DAC) microspheres were synthesized via inverse-phase suspension polymerization. In the synthesizing, N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) was used as crosslinker, cyclohexane as dispersed medium and span-60 as dispersants, obtaining CPDAC gel microspheres. The effect of polymerization condition on balling performance and the characteristics of CPDAC were examined. The adsorption properties of CPDAC towards SA were mainly explored and the data of adsorption isotherm were analyzed by using Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Sips and Toth models. Furthermore, the adsorption mechanism was analyzed in depth, and the adsorption thermodynamics was also investigated. The results show that in order to prepare CPDAC, water phase must be added dropwise to oil phase, and the volume ratio of oil-water is more than 2:1. The mean diameter of CPDAC decreases with increasing span-60 and accelerating agitating rate. The strong electrostatic interaction is formed between quaternary ammonium nitrogen of CPDAC and COO^- of SA. The adsorption kinetic data is fitted well with pseudo-first-order model. The adsorption ability is higher in aqueous water than ethanol, reaching 108mg/g, and Toth model is more suitable for describing the actual adsorption process. The adsorption of CPDAC towards SA is dependent on the pH value of the medium. The adsorption process is exothermic, the adsorption amount decreases with the increase of temperature, and the process is driven by enthalpy. The adsorption amount decreases with the increase of salinity. The reusability of CPDAC towards SA can keep 86.1% at the sixth cycle.