Preparation and Characterization of Chitosan Derivative Microspheres for Protein Delivery

Abstract

A novel amphiphilic narrow molecular weight distribution and low degree of polymerization laurylsuccinyl chitosan derivative( LSCOS) was synthesized in ionic liquid homogeneous system. The LSCOS microspheres were prepared according to water-in-oil emulsification cross-linking method with LSCOS as proteinloading material and bovine serum albumin( BSA) as a model protein and glutaraldehyde as the crosslinker.The effects of the BSA / LSCOS mass ratio and glutaraldehyde / LSCOS mass ratio on the morphology structure,loading capacity( LC),loading efficiency( LE) and in vitro BSA release characteristics were investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy( SEM),transmission electron microscopy( TEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The results showed that LSCOS was successfully synthesized in ionic liquid and BSA-loaded LSCOS microspheres were spherical in shape with particle size approximately 1 μm. The microspheres had a smoother surface with the increasing ratio of BSA / LSCOS and a rougher surface with the increasing ratio of glutaraldehyde / LSCOS. Decrease and increase in the ratio of BSA / LSCOS and glutaraldehyde / LSCOS,respectively,resulted in the decrease of the cumulative release of BSA. The data indicated that protein release rate can be controlled by adjusting the protein ratio and the glutaraldehyde ratio. Therefore,the LSCOS synthesized in ionic liquid could be a promising material with slow-release function for protein delivery.