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Minerva Biotecnologica 2012 June;24(2):62-9

Copyright © 2012 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Biomedical textiles with therapeutic effects: development of berberine containing chitosan microcapsules

Lam P. L. ¹, Wong R. S. M. ², Yuen M. C. W. ¹, Lam K. H. ³, Gambari R. ⁴, Chui C. H. ^{1, 2}

¹ Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China; ² Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; ³ Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China; ⁴ BioPharmaNet, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Biomedical textile is one of the potential aspects that many researchers are concentrating on. Applying the biomedical agents into textile materials is suggested to provide the therapeutic effects to heal the human aliments and promote the well-beings. The use of polymeric microcapsules to encapsulate the therapeutic drugs is believed to be helpful in protecting the liable drugs from the external environments. There is a great potential to introduce the drug containing microcapsules to textile materials for the development of biomedical textiles with therapeutic functions. In this study, berberine containing chitosan microcapsules were produced and then grafted onto the cotton fabrics in order to develop the biomedical textiles with antibacterial property. The surface morphology and the chemical components of microcapsules were evaluated by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis. The mean drug loading efficiency of berberine containing chitosan microcapsules was demonstrated to be 71.81%. The particle size of microcapsules was ranging from 21.62 μm to 56.75 μm with the mean particle size of 36.41μm. In vitro release study revealed that there was approximately 70% of berberine release from the microcapsules. The antibacterial assessment also showed that the berberine containing chitosan microcapsules on cotton fabrics improved the growth inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus when compared with the free drug.