Fabrication of Gelatin/Chitosan Microspheres with Different Morphologies and Study on Biological Properties

Abstract

Gelatin/Chitosan (Gel/Cs) microspheres were prepared by emulsion-coagulation method using glutaraldehyde as cross-linker. The influence of treatment methods, including removing water by different concentration of acetone/water solution and freeze-drying, on surface morphology was investigated, and the biological properties, such as cell cytotoxicity and hemolytic test, were also studied. The experimental results indicated that collapsed and aggregative, wrinkled and smooth Gel/Cs microspheres was obtained when treated by pure acetone, acetone/water solution (volume ratio of 7:1) and acetone/water solution (volume ratio of 3:1), respectively. The microspheres with porous structure were prepared when the obtained smooth Gel/Cs microspheres were treated by freeze-drying method. The cytotoxicity test result demonstrated that no significant cytotoxicity of the Gel/Cs microspheres against L929 mouse fibroblasts was observed. The hemolytic test suggested that the Gel/Cs microspheres, with a hemolytic index of 1.03%, did not have an obvious hemolytic reaction.

Keywords:

• Biological properties
• Chitosan
• Gelatin
• Microspheres
• Morphology

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was supported by Key Science and Technology Financing Projects of Ministry of Education of China (No. 211124), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 11JJ3035), Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Province Education Department (No. 10B087) and Doctoral Research Foundation of Jishou University (No. jsdxkyzz-201009).