Preparation and characterization of glycyrrhetinic acid-modified stearic acid-grafted chitosan micelles

This work was supported by the key scientific and technological projects of Shandong Province in 2008.

Abstract

Stearic acid-grafted chitosan (CS-SA) and glycyrrhetinic acid-conjugated stearic acid-grafted chitosan (GA-CS-SA) were synthesized and were further used for the preparation of micelles. The substitution degree (SD) of SA and GA on CS was measured. The physicochemical properties of CS-SA and GA-CS-SA micelles such as critical micelle concentration (CMC), aggregation number of hydrophobic micro-domain (AN), particle size, zeta potential, and morphology were also determined. The CMC of GA-CS-SA was about 17.49 μg/mL, which was relatively low. Its AN was 2.09. The GA-CS-SA micelles showed spherical shape with mean diameter of 121.1 nm and had positive charge, which suggested that GA-CS-SA could be a good carrier of cancer drug.

Keywords::

• chitosan
• glycyrrhetinic acid
• micelle
• targeting

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

This work was supported by the key scientific and technological projects of Shandong Province in 2008.