Preparation of a Water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) Type Microcapsules by a Single-droplet-drying Method and Change in Encapsulation Efficiency of a Hydrophilic Substance during Storage

Microcapsules of a water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) emulsion, which contained a hydrophilic substance, 1,3,6,8-pyrenetetrasulfonic acid tetrasodium salt (PTSA), in its inner aqueous phase, was prepared by hot-air-drying or freeze-drying the emulsion using a single-droplet-drying method. Pullulan, maltodextrin, or gum arabic was used as a wall material, and the oily phase was tricaprylin, oleic acid, olive oil, or a mixture of tricaprylin and olive oil. An encapsulation efficiency higher than 0.95 was reached except for the microcapsules prepared using gum arabic and oleic acid. The hot-air-dried microcapsules were generally more stable than the freeze-dried microcapsules at 37°C and various relative humidities. The stability was higher for the microcapsules with tricaprylin as the oily phase than for the microcapsules with oleic acid. The higher stability of the microcapsules with tricaprylin would be ascribed to the lower partition coefficient of PTSA to the oily phase. There was a tendency for the stability to be higher at lower relative humidity for both the hot-air- and freeze-dried microcapsules. The volumetric fraction of olive oil in its mixture with tricaprylin did not significantly affect either the encapsulation efficiency or the stability of the hot-air-dried microcapsules.     

Optimization of the cell seeding density and modeling of cell growth and metabolism using the modified Gompertz model for microencapsulated animal cell culture

Cell microencapsulation is one of the promising strategies for the in vitro production of proteins or in vivo delivery of therapeutic products. In order to design and fabricate the optimized microencapsulated cell system, the Gompertz model was applied and modified to describe the growth and metabolism of microencapsulated cell, including substrate consumption and product formation. The Gompertz model successfully described the cell growth kinetics and the modified Gompertz models fitted the substrate consumption and product formation well. It was demonstrated that the optimal initial cell seeding density was about 4-5 x 10(6) cells/mL of microcapsule, in terms of the maximum specific growth rate, the glucose consumption potential and the product formation potential calculated by the Gompertz and modified Gompertz models. Modeling of cell growth and metabolism in microcapsules provides a guideline for optimizing the culture of microencapsulated cells.     

用于白蚁防治的联苯菊酯微胶囊的制备及性能研究

针对白蚁防治药剂联苯菊酯传统加工剂型存在的安全性差、持效期短等缺点,采用溶剂蒸发法制备联苯菊酯微胶囊.通过粒径大小、外观形貌、包封率以及载药量筛选出最佳芯壁比、乳化剂用量和剪切时间,并对微胶囊理化特性及释放性能进行表征,同时考察微胶囊对白蚁的杀灭效果和持效性.研究结果表明,芯壁比为1:1.5,乳化剂用量为7％,剪切时间为6 min时制备的联苯菊酯微胶囊粒径适中(97.6μm),包封率高达70.5％,缓释性能良好,与市售乳油相比,对白蚁的杀灭效果相当,但持效性能优异.该研究获得的联苯菊酯微胶囊为安全、高效防治白蚁提供了技术手段.     

Swelling behaviour of alginate–chitosan microcapsules prepared by external gelation or internal gelation technology

Swelling behaviour is one of the important properties for microcapsules made by hydrogels, which always affects the diffusion and release of drugs when the microcapsules are applied in drug delivery systems. In this paper, alginate–chitosan microcapsules were prepared by different technologies called external or internal gelation process respectively. With the volume swelling degree (S_w) as an index, the effect of properties of chitosan on the swelling behaviour of both microcapsules was investigated. It was demonstrated that the microcapsules with low molecular weight and high concentration of chitosan gave rise to low S_w. Considering the need of maintaining drug activity and drug loading, neutral pH and short gelation time were favorable. It was also noticed that S_w of internal gelation microcapsules was lower than that of external gelation microcapsules, which was interpreted by the structure analysis of internal or external gelation Ca–alginate beads with the aid of confocal laser scanning microscope.     

Advances in polymer-based cell encapsulation and its applications in tissue repair

Cell microencapsulation is a more widely accepted area of biological encapsulation. In most cases, it involves fixing cells in polymer scaffolds or semi-permeable hydrogel capsules, providing the environment for protecting cells, allowing the exchange of nutrients and oxygen, and protecting cells against the attack of the host immune system by preventing the entry of antibodies and cytotoxic immune cells. Hydrogel encapsulation provides a three-dimensional (3D) environment similar to that experienced in vivo, so it can maintain normal cellular functions to produce tissues similar to those in vivo. Embedded cells can be genetically modified to release specific therapeutic products directly at the target site, thereby eliminating the side effects of systemic treatments. Cellular microcarriers need to meet many extremely high standards regarding their biocompatibility, cytocompatibility, immunoseparation capacity, transport, mechanical, and chemical properties. In this article, we discuss the biopolymer gels used in tissue engineering applications and the brief introduction of cell encapsulation for therapeutic protein production. Also, we review polymer biomaterials and methods for preparing cell microcarriers for biomedical applications. At the same time, in order to improve the application performance of cell microcarriers in vivo, we also summarize the main limitations and improvement strategies of cell encapsulation. Finally, the main applications of polymer cell microcarriers in regenerative medicine are summarized.     

微胶囊固定化酵母培养的研究

进行了ＮａＣＳＰＤＭＤＡＡＣ微胶囊固定化酒精酵母和产朊假丝酵母的实验研究。考察了这两种酵母的培养规律,发现微胶囊固定化酒精酵母的产酒精情况与游离培养基本一致,在连续发酵１６批后,仍具有良好的性能。同时固定化产谷胱甘肽（ＧＳＨ）的产朊假丝酵母的研究也表明固定化培养ＧＳＨ产量与游离细胞产量相近     

微囊化重组CHO细胞制备和培养条件的优化

微囊化重组基因细胞移植治疗肿瘤是一种新兴的肿瘤基因治疗方法,然而由于目前微囊化细胞规模化制备和培养技术还不成熟,阻碍了其在临床治疗中的推广与应用。以重组CHO细胞为模型,考察了不同的微囊制备和培养条件对微囊化细胞生长和内皮抑素表达的影响。实验表明,种子细胞所处的生长阶段和细胞接种密度对微囊化细胞生长和内皮抑素表达的影响较大,对数生长期的细胞进行包囊并且细胞接种密度为1×106~2×106cells/mL微囊时微囊内细胞生长良好、内皮抑素表达量高。微囊制备时间对细胞活性和内皮抑素表达也有较大的影响,制备时间延长对细胞的损伤增大,因此制备时间应控制在5h以内。生物微胶囊在制备过程中会造成细胞损伤,而体外培养是恢复细胞活性的良好方法,在培养过程中微囊接种量为5%时对细胞生长和内皮抑素表达有利。     

Progress technology in microencapsulation methods for cell therapy

Cell encapsulation in microcapsules allows the in situ delivery of secreted proteins to treat different pathological conditions. Spherical microcapsules offer optimal surface‐to‐volume ratio for protein and nutrient diffusion, and thus, cell viability. This technology permits cell survival along with protein secretion activity upon appropriate host stimuli without the deleterious effects of immunosuppressant drugs. Microcapsules can be classified in 3 categories: matrix‐core/shell microcapsules, liquid‐core/shell microcapsules, and cells‐core/shell microcapsules (or conformal coating). Many preparation techniques using natural or synthetic polymers as well as inorganic compounds have been reported. Matrix‐core/shell microcapsules in which cells are hydrogel‐embedded, exemplified by alginates capsule, is by far the most studied method. Numerous refinement of the technique have been proposed over the years such as better material characterization and purification, improvements in microbead generation methods, and new microbeads coating techniques. Other approaches, based on liquid‐core capsules showed improved protein production and increased cell survival. But aside those more traditional techniques, new techniques are emerging in response to shortcomings of existing methods. More recently, direct cell aggregate coating have been proposed to minimize membrane thickness and implants size. Microcapsule performances are largely dictated by the physicochemical properties of the materials and the preparation techniques employed. Despite numerous promising pre‐clinical results, at the present time each methods proposed need further improvements before reaching the clinical phase. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009     

Preparation and characterization of melamine-formaldehyde resin microcapsules containing fragrant oil

In this study, melamine-formaldehyde microcapsules were prepared viain situ polymerization using peppermint oil as a core material, melamine-formaldehyde as the wall material, Tween 20 as the emulsifier, and poly (vinyl alcohol) as a protective colloid. The melamine-formaldehyde microcapsules prepared in this study were then evaluated with regard to their structures, thermal properties, particle size distributions, morphologies, and release behaviors.