TY - JOUR
T1 - Preparation of Paclitaxel-Loaded Alginate-Chitosan Complex Microcapsules
AU - Wenguo Wu, Shibin Wang, Yuangang Liu & Aizheng Chen
JO - Journal of Fiber Bioengineering and Informatics
VL - 2
SP - 153
EP - 163
PY - 2014
DA - 2014/07
SN - 7
DO - http://doi.org/10.3993/jfbi06201403
UR - https://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/jfbi/4774.html
KW - Paclitaxel
KW - Alginate
KW - Chitosan
KW - Microcapsules
KW - High-voltage Electrostatic Technique
AB - Paclitaxel-loaded alginate-chitosan complex microcapsules were successfully prepared by the high-voltage
electrostatic technique. The effect of paclitaxel concentration and drug-loading methods on drug loading
of alginate-chitosan microcapsules, and the effect of methanol concentration, chitosan concentration and
chitosan molecular weight on encapsulation efficiency were investigated. Experimental results showed
that calcium alginate beads had a good degree of sphericity and a uniform size of 299.8 ± 3.6  μm. After
encapsulation with chitosan membrane followed by freeze drying, microcapsules shrunk and collapsed
with a mean particle size of about 60.0 μm. Drug loading results showed that as paclitaxel concentration
increased from 2 mg/mL to 8 mg/mL, drug loading of microcapsules was increased from 1.95% to 11.16%.
Microcapsules with dynamical paclitaxel-loading at 30 °C had the highest drug loading, followed by
those with statical paclitaxel-loading at 4 °C and 37 °C. Encapsulation efficiency results showed that
microcapsules washed with 0.5% (v/v) methanol had the highest encapsulation efficiency of 2.85%.
The encapsulation efficiency was decreased with the increase of chitosan concentration, while it firstly
decreased and then increased with the increase of molecular weight of chitosan. These results provide
primary information about drug loading and encapsulation efficiency properties of paclitaxel-loaded
alginate-chitosan microcapsules as a novel drug carrier.