Abstract
Lactoferrin (Lf) has considerable potential as a functional ingredient in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications. However, the bioavailability of Lf is limited as it is susceptible to digestive enzymes in gastrointestinal tract. The shells comprising alternate layers of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and tannic acid (TA) were tested as Lf encapsulation system for oral administration. Lf absorption by freshly prepared porous 3 μm CaCO3 particles followed by Layer-by-Layer assembly of the BSA-TA shells and dissolution of the CaCO3 cores was suggested as the most efficient and harmless Lf loading method. The microcapsules showed high stability in gastric conditions and effectively protected encapsulated proteins from digestion. Protective efficiency was found to be 76 ± 6% and 85 ± 2%, for (BSA-TA)4 and (BSA-TA)8 shells, respectively. The transit of Lf along the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of mice was followed in vivo and ex vivo using NIR luminescence. We have demonstrated that microcapsules released Lf in small intestine allowing 6.5 times higher concentration than in control group dosed with the same amount of free Lf. Significant amounts of Lf released from microcapsules were then absorbed into bloodstream and accumulated in liver. Suggested encapsulation system has a great potential for functional foods providing lactoferrin.
Highlights
Delivery systems have been suggested[2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,12,13,14,15]
This work is the first demonstration of the LbL-assembled bovine serum albumin (BSA)-tannic acid (TA) microcapsules as a system for encapsulation and oral delivery of Lf
Encapsulation of Lf was performed through its absorption by porous CaCO3 microparticles, as first suggested by Volodkin et al.[41]
Summary
Delivery systems have been suggested[2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,12,13,14,15]. Nojima et al first synthesized Lf conjugated with branched 20 kDa poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) which demonstrated a significantly higher resistance to pepsin proteolysis in the mature rats[13]. Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembled microcapsules have been widely used for various applications as they provide high versatility with respect to payload and offer various targeted delivery and triggered release options, such as light, magnetic field, ultrasound, temperature, pH, salinity, redox potential[16,17,18,19,20,21]. This technology is advantageous for encapsulation of fragile cargo in biomedical applications[22] as it requires aqueous solutions only and is performed at room temperature. We use NIR luminescence to follow the transit of Lf-containing microcapsules along the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of mice in vivo, and Lf biodistribution in different parts of the mouse GIT and in liver ex vivo
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