Elucidation of gelation mechanism and molecular interactions of agarose in solution by 1H NMR

Gelatine Blends Modified with Polysaccharides: A Potential Alternative to Non-Degradable Plastics

Non-degradable plastics of petrochemical origin are a contemporary problem of society. Due to the large amount of plastic waste, there are problems with their disposal or storage, where the most common types of plastic waste are disposable tableware, bags, packaging, bottles, and containers, and not all of them can be recycled. Due to growing ecological awareness, interest in the topics of biodegradable materials suitable for disposable items has begun to reduce the consumption of non-degradable plastics. An example of such materials are biodegradable biopolymers and their derivatives, which can be used to create the so-called bioplastics and biopolymer blends. In this article, gelatine blends modified with polysaccharides (e.g., agarose or carrageenan) were created and tested in order to obtain a stable biopolymer coating. Various techniques were used to characterize the resulting bioplastics, including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)/differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), contact angle measurements, and surface energy characterization. The influence of thermal and microbiological degradation on the properties of the blends was also investigated. From the analysis, it can be observed that the addition of agarose increased the hardness of the mixture by 27% compared to the control sample without the addition of polysaccharides. In addition, there was an increase in the surface energy (24%), softening point (15%), and glass transition temperature (14%) compared to the control sample. The addition of starch to the gelatine matrix increased the softening point by 15% and the glass transition temperature by 6%. After aging, both compounds showed an increase in hardness of 26% and a decrease in tensile strength of 60%. This offers an opportunity as application materials in the form of biopolymer coatings, dietary supplements, skin care products, short-term and single-contact decorative elements, food, medical, floriculture, and decorative industries.

Quasielastic Neutron Scattering Study on Thermal Gelation in Aqueous Solution of Agarose

The dynamics of water and agarose molecules in an agarose aqueous solution has been studied by means of quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS). The dynamic structure factor S (Q,E) of the agarose aqueous solution was fitted well to the sum of the Lorentz and delta function. The former is attributed to the diffusive motion of water molecules and the latter to the local vibrational motion of agarose molecules. The self-diffusion coefficient D of water molecules was obtained from the Q-dependence of the width of the Lorentz function, while the mean square displacement of agarose molecules was obtained from the Q-dependence of the intensity of the delta term. In the cooling direction, both D and decreased with decreasing temperature and showed discontinuous changes around the thermal gelation temperature (around 314 K). In the heating direction, however, D and did not show the obvious change below 343 K, indicating a large hysteresis effect. The present results of and D revealed that the thermal gelation suppresses the motion of the polymer and accelerates the diffusion of water molecules. The activation energy Ea of the diffusion of water in the sol state is the same as that of bulk water, but the Ea in the gel state is clearly smaller than that of bulk water.

Characterization of Agarose Gels in Solvent and Non-Solvent Media

Agarose is known to form a homogeneous thermoreversible gel in an aqueous medium over a critical polymer concentration. The solid-liquid phase transitions are thermoreversible but depend on the molecular structure of the agarose sample tested. The literature has mentioned that agarose gels could remain stable in non-solvents such as acetone or ethanol. However, there has been no characterization of their behavior nor a comparison with the gels formed in a good solvent such as water. In the first step of this article, the structure was characterized using ¹H and ¹³C NMR in both D₂O and DMSO-d6 solvents. DMSO is a solvent that dissolves agarose regardless of the temperature. First, we have determined a low yield of methyl substitution on the D-galactose unit. Then, the evolution of the ¹H NMR spectrum was monitored as a function of temperature during both increasing and decreasing temperature processes, ranging from 25 to 80 °C. A large thermal hysteresis was obtained and discussed, which aided in the interpretation of rheological behavior. The hysteresis of NMR signals is related to the mobility of the agarose chains, which follows the sol/gel transition depending on the chains' association with H-bonds between water and the -OH groups of agarose for tightly bound water and agarose/agarose in chain packing. In the second step of the study, the water in the agarose gel was exchanged with ethanol, which is a non-solvent for agarose. The resulting gel was stable, and its properties were characterized using rheology and compared to its behavior in aqueous media. The bound water molecules that act as plasticizers were likely removed during the exchange process, resulting in a stronger and more brittle gel in ethanol, with higher thermal stability compared to the aqueous gel. It is the first time that such gel is characterized without phase transition when passing from a good solvent to a non-solvent. This extends the domains of application of agarose.

Fast Identification of Food Thickeners by Nontargeted NMR-Spectroscopy

Food thickeners are carbohydrate additives that can only be determined by long-term, multistep analysis. Fast methods to directly determine thickeners in food matrixes are therefore welcome. In this study, a rapid procedure based on the direct ¹H NMR analysis of food samples dissolved in deuterated water was developed. Individual thickeners were assigned due to specific marker signals gleaned from two-dimensional NMR analyses. The combination of one-dimensional ¹H NMR and DOSY experiments enabled unequivocal assignments of thickeners even in complex matrixes. Using this approach, gum arabic, carrageenan, agar-agar, galactomannans, and pectin could be identified in pastille, glaze, and fruit spread. Because of low concentrations (<0.5%-1%, w/w), the same thickeners and others such as xanthan gum and alginate could not be determined directly by NMR in curry sauce, rice pudding, choco milk drink, and lemon peel flavor. Moreover, NMR analyses of the hydrolysate did not reveal the specific monomeric units of the thickeners under study, as shown for the hydrolysate of lemon peel flavor. Nevertheless, the NMR approach could provide welcome means in the future to directly determine intact thickeners in food.

Polysaccharide-Based Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering: A Review

In addition to proteins and nucleic acids, polysaccharides are an important type of biomacromolecule widely distributed in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Polysaccharides are considered as promising biomaterials due to their significant bioactivities, natural abundance, immunoactivity, and chemical modifiability for tissue engineering (TE) applications. Due to the similarities of the biochemical properties of polysaccharides and the extracellular matrix of human bodies, polysaccharides are increasingly recognized and accepted. Furthermore, the degradation behavior of these macromolecules is generally nontoxic. Certain delicate properties, such as remarkable mechanical properties and tunable tissue response, can be obtained by modifying the functional groups on the surface of polysaccharide molecules. The applications of polysaccharide-based biomaterials in the TE field have been growing intensively in recent decades, for example, bone/cartilage regeneration, cardiac regeneration, neural regeneration, and skin regeneration. This review summarizes the main essential properties of polysaccharides, including their chemical properties, crosslinking mechanisms, and biological properties, and focuses on the association between their structures and properties. The recent progress in polysaccharide-based biomaterials in various TE applications is reviewed, and the prospects for future studies are addressed as well. We intend this review to offer a comprehensive understanding of and inspiration for the research and development of polysaccharide-based materials in TE.

Saltiness perception enhancement of fish meat treated by microwave: The significance of conformational characteristics, water and sodium mobility

A saltiness perception enhancement method of grass carp meat conducted by microwave heating was investigated. Ion chromatographic results demonstrated that all samples had the same sodium level retained in matrices after being treated by water bath (WBV) and microwave with different power of 2.5, 7.5, 10, and 12.5 W/g (MWV). However, the meat treated by microwave exhibited a higher salty intensity than that of WBV, particularly MWV-10 W/g and MWV-12.5 W/g. The enhanced saltiness perception of meat treated by microwave was attributed to the facilitated water and sodium mobility demonstrated by low field-NMR and pulse-field-gradient stimulated echo (PFG-STE) ²³Na NMR experiments. Furthermore, the enhancement was also related to the formation of microstructure favorable for sodium diffusion, originating from the insufficient denaturation and less exposure of hydrophobic groups of proteins induced by microwave heating. Therefore, microwave heating has the potential to enhance the saltiness perception of meat in the food industry.

Biomaterials for Bioprinting Microvasculature

Microvasculature functions at the tissue and cell level, regulating local mass exchange of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood. While there has been considerable success in the biofabrication of large- and small-vessel replacements, functional microvasculature has been particularly challenging to engineer due to its size and complexity. Recently, three-dimensional bioprinting has expanded the possibilities of fabricating sophisticated microvascular systems by enabling precise spatiotemporal placement of cells and biomaterials based on computer-aided design. However, there are still significant challenges facing the development of printable biomaterials that promote robust formation and controlled 3D organization of microvascular networks. This review provides a thorough examination and critical evaluation of contemporary biomaterials and their specific roles in bioprinting microvasculature. We first provide an overview of bioprinting methods and techniques that enable the fabrication of microvessels. We then offer an in-depth critical analysis on the use of hydrogel bioinks for printing microvascularized constructs within the framework of current bioprinting modalities. We end with a review of recent applications of bioprinted microvasculature for disease modeling, drug testing, and tissue engineering, and conclude with an outlook on the challenges facing the evolution of biomaterials design for bioprinting microvasculature with physiological complexity.

Bioprinting Vasculature: Materials, Cells and Emergent Techniques

Despite the great advances that the tissue engineering field has experienced over the last two decades, the amount of in vitro engineered tissues that have reached a stage of clinical trial is limited. While many challenges are still to be overcome, the lack of vascularization represents a major milestone if tissues bigger than approximately 200 µm are to be transplanted. Cell survival and homeostasis is to a large extent conditioned by the oxygen and nutrient transport (as well as waste removal) by blood vessels on their proximity and spontaneous vascularization in vivo is a relatively slow process, leading all together to necrosis of implanted tissues. Thus, in vitro vascularization appears to be a requirement for the advancement of the field. One of the main approaches to this end is the formation of vascular templates that will develop in vitro together with the targeted engineered tissue. Bioprinting, a fast and reliable method for the deposition of cells and materials on a precise manner, appears as an excellent fabrication technique. In this review, we provide a comprehensive background to the fields of vascularization and bioprinting, providing details on the current strategies, cell sources, materials and outcomes of these studies.

A practical approach to enrich intact tryptic N-glycopeptides through size exclusion chromatography and hydrophilicity (SELIC) using an acrylamide-agarose composite gel system

Increasing researches proved that abnormal glycosylation is strongly correlated with many diseases. Specially, site-specific glycosylation and its associated heterogeneity are closely related to the function and activity of the glycoprotein. However, intact N-glycopeptide analysis still faces great challenges because the presence of highly abundant non-glycosylated peptides would suppress the ionization of lowly abundant glycopeptides. In the present study, we developed a practical intact tryptic N-glycopeptide enrichment method using acrylamide-agarose composite gel that combined the size exclusion chromatography and hydrophilic (named SELIC) effects, aimed to remove the detergent rapidly and effectively, as well as enrich intact N-glycopeptides while extracting peptides. This is a useful tool to facilitate the intact N-glycopeptides analysis of complex protein mixtures, particularly for samples that extracted from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues by SDS. Using this method, we successfully identified 700 site-specific intact tryptic N-glycopeptides corresponding to 261 glycosylation sites on 191 glycoproteins from FFPE thymoma tissues.

Effect of Sweeteners on the Solvent Transport Behaviour of Mechanically-Constrained Agarose Gels

Investigating the solvent transport behaviour of edible gels is important because it is strongly related to flavour release. We previously reported the solvent transport behaviour of mechanically-constrained agarose gels. These studies clearly showed that agarose gels can be treated as soft porous bodies. Herein, we investigated the effect of sweeteners on the solvent transport speed, which is an important issue in the food industry, using sucrose and xylitol. Sucrose caused a concentration-dependent reduction in solvent transport speed. One of the reasons for the effect is that the solvent to which sucrose was added reduced solvent flow speed within the porous agarose network. This finding provides valuable information for flavour release from compressed gels. Moreover, we found a similar effect for xylitol, which is a promising candidate for substituting sucrose in low-calorie foods. This study would provide basic knowledge for the development of a new type of low-calorie foods.

Patterns in Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast colonies via magnetic resonance imaging

We report the use of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging methods to observe pattern formation in colonies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our results indicate substantial signal loss localized in specific regions of the colony rendering useful imaging contrast. This imaging contrast is recognizable as being due to discontinuities in magnetic susceptibility (χ) between different spatial regions. At the microscopic pixel level, the local variations in the magnetic susceptibility (Δχ) induce a loss in the NMR signal, which was quantified via T₂ and T₂* maps, permitting estimation of Δχ values for different regions of the colony. Interestingly the typical petal/wrinkling patterns present in the colony have a high degree of correlation with the estimated susceptibility distribution. We conclude that the presence of magnetic susceptibility inclusions, together with their spatial arrangement within the colony, may be a potential cause of the susceptibility distribution and therefore the contrast observed on the images.

Robust and thermoplastic hydrogels with surface micro-patterns for highly oriented growth of osteoblasts

Robust and thermoplastic hydrogels combining the sol–gel transition behaviours of agarose and the double networks were constructed.

Silk/agarose scaffolds with tunable properties via SDS assisted rapid gelation

We developed a simple approach to fabricate silk/agarose scaffolds with tunable properties via controlling the gelation degree of silk fibroin.

Sucrose release from polysaccharide gels

Sucrose release from polysaccharide gels has been studied extensively because it is expected to be useful in understanding flavour release from solid foods and to find a new processing method which produces more palatable and healthier foods.

Agarose–guar gum assisted synthesis of processable polyaniline composite: morphology and electro-responsive characteristics

An electroactive, electroconducting, processable polyaniline composite is developed via agarose–guar gum assisted polymerization.

Molecular mobility and microscopic structure changes in κ-carrageenan solutions studied by gradient NMR

Changes in the molecular mobility of κ-carrageenan were observed by the pulsed field gradient stimulated echo (PGSTE) and Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) methods for elucidating the molecular aspect of the sol-to-gel transition. The echo signal intensity of κ-carrageenan without a gradient, Ikap(0), decreased steeply near the sol-to-gel temperature (Tsg), suggesting that κ-carrageenan chains formed aggregates and a network structure. Below Tsg, the spin-spin relaxation time T2 and the diffusion coefficient of κ-carrageenan (Dkap) increased with decreasing temperature, indicating that the solute κ-carrageenan chains have a lower molecular weight Mw than chains involved in the aggregation. The diffusion coefficient of pullulan (Dpul) added as a probe molecule in κ-carrageenan solutions was measured, and the characteristic hydrodynamic screening length, ξ, was then estimated from the degree of diffusion restriction. Below a certain temperature, Dkap reached a higher value than that of Dpul, suggesting that the Mw of solute κ-carrageenan became lower than that of pullulan. GPC measurements confirmed the presence of κ-carrageenan chains with a lower Mw than that of pullulan. A simple physical model of the structural change in κ-carrageenan solution was proposed with a bimodal distribution of κ-carrageenan with higher and lower Mw than the pullulan probe. The higher Mw chains form the gel network restricting the probe's diffusion, and the lower Mw chains increase the effective viscosity. The concentration of the high Mw solute κ-carrageenan chains in 1%, 2% and 4% κ-carrageenan solutions was estimated from Ikap(0) and the total κ-carrageenan concentration, and the relation with pullulan diffusion was studied.