Characterization and evaluation of hydrophobically modified chitosan scaffolds: Towards design of enzyme immobilized flow-through electrodes

The Impact of Polyethylene Glycol-Modified Chitosan Scaffolds on the Proliferation and Differentiation of Osteoblasts

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) incorporated chitosan scaffolds on osteoblasts proliferation and differentiation. The chitosan polymer was initially modified by the predetermined concentration of the photoreactive azido group for UV-crosslinking and with RGD peptides (N-acetyl-GRGDSPGYG-amide). The PEG was mixed at different ratios (0, 10, and 20 wt%) with modified chitosan in 96-well tissue culture polystyrene plates to prepare CHI-100, CHI-90, and CHI-80 scaffolds. PEG-containing scaffolds exhibited bigger pore size and higher water content compared to unmodified chitosan scaffolds. After 10 days of incubation, the cell number of CHI-90 (1.1 × 106 cells/scaffold) surpasses that of CHI-100 (9.2 × 105 cells/scaffold) and the cell number of CHI-80 (7.6 × 105 cells/scaffold) were significantly lower. The ALP activity of CHI-90 was the highest on the fifth day indicating the favored osteoblasts' early-stage differentiation. Moreover, after 14 days of osteogenic culture, calcium deposition in the CHI-90 scaffolds (2.7 μmol Ca/scaffold) was significantly higher than the control (2.2 μmol Ca/scaffold) whereas on CHI-80 was 1.9 μmol/scaffold. The results demonstrate that PEG-incorporated chitosan scaffolds favored osteoblasts proliferation and differentiation; however, mixing relatively excess PEG (≥20% wt.) had a negative impact on osteoblasts proliferation and differentiation.

Kinetic Measurements for Enzyme Immobilization

Enzyme kinetics is the study of the chemical reactions that are catalyzed by enzymes, with a focus on their reaction rates. The study of an enzyme's kinetics considers the various stages of activity, reveals the catalytic mechanism of this enzyme, correlates its value to assay conditions, and describes how a drug or a poison might inhibit the enzyme. Victor Henri initially reported that enzyme reactions were initiated by a bond between the enzyme and the substrate. By 1910, Michaelis and Menten were advancing their work by studying the kinetics of an enzyme saccharase which catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose into glucose and fructose. They published their analysis and ever since the Michaelis-Menten equation has been used as the standard to describe the kinetics of many enzymes. Unfortunately, soluble enzymes must generally be immobilized to be reused for long times in industrial reactors. In addition, other critical enzyme properties have to be improved like stability, activity, inhibition by reaction products, and selectivity towards nonnatural substrates. Immobilization is by far the chosen process to achieve these goals.Although the Michaelis-Menten approach has been regularly adapted to the analysis of immobilized enzyme activity, its applicability to the immobilized state is limited by the barriers the immobilization matrix places upon the measurement of compounds that are used to model enzyme kinetics. That being said, the estimated value of the Michaelis-Menten coefficients (e.g., V _max, K _M) can be used to evaluate effects of immobilization on enzyme activity in the immobilized state when applied in a controlled manner. In this review enzyme activity and kinetics are discussed in the context of the immobilized state, and a few novel protocols are presented that address some of the unique constraints imposed by the immobilization barrier.

Fabrication, characterization and cytotoxicity studies of ionically cross-linked docetaxel loaded chitosan nanoparticles

The present investigation aimed at the fabrication and characterization of ionically cross-linked docetaxel (DTX) loaded chitosan nanoparticles (DTX-CH-NP) using ionic gelation technique with sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as the cross-linking agent. The formulated nanoparticles were characterized in terms of particle size, drug entrapment efficiency (EE), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), in vitro release and cytotoxicity studies. Formulation factors (chitosan, TPP and drug concentration) were examined systematically for their effects on size of the nanoparticles. The average size of the nanoparticles was observed to be in the range of 159.2 ± 3.31 to 220.7 ± 2.23 nm with 78-92% encapsulation efficiency (EE). The in vitro cytotoxicity studies on breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231) revealed the advantages of DTX-CH-NP over pure DTX with approximately 85% cell viability reduction. The results indicate that systematic modulation of the surface charge and particle size of ionically cross-linked nanoparticles can be readily achieved with the right control of critical processing parameters. Thus, DTX-CH-NP presents a promising delivery alternative for breast cancer treatment.

Controlled deposition of structured polymer films: chemical and rheological factors in chitosan film formation

The technique of "spread coating" has been used to create thin films from solutions of deacetylated and butyl-modified chitosan polymer, and the effect of deposition rate on film thickness has been characterized. Results show that films of controlled thickness can be reproducibly produced and that hydrophobic modification of the polymer can extend the range over which a linear response between film thickness and deposition rate is achieved. Viscometry and fluorescence spectroscopy were also employed to characterize the micellar characteristics of solutions of both deacetylated and butyl-modified chitosan polymer. Although both deacetylated and butyl-modified chitosan solutions were found to have inter- and intramolecular interactions, as well as hydrophobic domains able to incorporate fluorophores, deacetylated chitosan was found to be more interconnected via intermolecular interactions at higher concentrations. These results are important as having the ability to understand how the introduction of hydrophobic modification, a technique shown to introduce solution-based micelle structure and micellar aggregates that support enzyme immobilization, affects film thickness and morphology of spread coated thin films will aid the long-term development and deployment of chitosan-based biofuel cell electrodes.

Kinetic measurements for enzyme immobilization

Enzyme kinetics is the study of the chemical reactions that are catalyzed by enzymes, with a focus on their reaction rates. The study of an enzyme's kinetics considers the various stages of activity, reveals the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme, correlates its value to assay conditions, and describes how a drug or a poison might inhibit the enzyme. Victor Henri initially reported that enzyme reactions were initiated by a bond between the enzyme and the substrate. By 1910, Michaelis and Menten had advanced this work by studying the kinetics of the enzyme saccharase, which catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose into glucose and fructose. They published their analysis, and ever since, the Michaelis-Menten equation has been used as the standard to describe the kinetics of many enzymes. Unfortunately, soluble enzymes must generally be immobilized to be reused for long times in industrial reactors. In addition, other critical enzyme properties have to be improved like stability, activity, inhibition by reaction products, selectivity toward nonnatural substrates. Immobilization is by far the chosen process to achieve these goals.Although the Michaelis-Menten approach has been regularly adopted for the analysis of immobilized enzyme activity, its applicability to the immobilized state is limited by the barriers the immobilization matrix places upon the measurement of compounds that are used to model enzyme kinetics. That being said, the estimated value of the Michaelis-Menten coefficients (e.g., V(max), K(M)) can be used to evaluate effects of immobilization on enzyme activity in the immobilized state when applied in a controlled manner. In this review, enzyme activity and kinetics are discussed in the context of the immobilized state, and a few novel protocols are presented that address some of the unique constraints imposed by the immobilization barrier.