BIOENCAPSULATION 

Minerva Biotecnologica 2000 December;12(4):271-8

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The effect of different in vitro solutions in the dissolution of calcium pectinate beads intended for the delivery of live cells to the human large intestine

Chan W. A., Boswell C. D., Zhang Z.

School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Hydrogel ­formed by a low methox­yl pec­tin and cal­cium ion has poten­tial appli­ca­tion for tar­get­ed deliv­ery of bio­log­i­cal mate­ri­als to the ­human ­large intes­tine. Pectin ­does not dis­solve in the ­upper ­human gas­troin­tes­ti­nal (GI) ­tract but can be degrad­ed by pec­tin­o­lyt­ic ­enzymes ­present in the ­human ­large intes­tine. However, the com­po­si­tion of dif­fer­ent ­types of in-­vitro dis­so­lu­tion ­fluids ­designed to mim­ic ­human ­small intes­tine and ­large intes­tine ­fluids, can ­affect the dis­so­lu­tion pro­file of cal­cium pec­ti­nate (CaP) ­beads. The aim of ­this ­study was to com­pare the ­release pro­files of a bio­log­i­cal mate­ri­al in ­some com­mon­ly ­used phos­phate buf­fer solu­tions ­with ­release pro­files in phys­io­log­i­cal ­salts solu­tions, ­using the BP 98 pad­dle dis­so­lu­tion meth­od. It was ­found ­that the ­release pro­files for ­these two ­types of in-­vitro solu­tions ­were com­par­able with­out the pre-treat­ment ­with an ­acid solu­tion, but ­were mark­ed­ly dif­fer­ent fol­low­ing the ­acid treat­ment. In addi­tion, it was ­found ­that the pres­ence of cal­cium ion in the solu­tion affect­ed the activ­ity of the pec­tin­o­lyt­ic ­enzyme.