Lai, W.-F. orcid.org/0000-0003-0585-6396 and Wong, W.-T. (2021) Property-Tuneable Microgels Fabricated by Using Flow-Focusing Microfluidic Geometry for Bioactive Agent Delivery. Pharmaceutics, 13 (6). 787. ISSN 1999-4923
Abstract
Gelatine methacryloyl (GM) shows high biocompatibility and is extensively used in tissue engineering; however, few works have explored the use of GM in bioactive agent delivery. This study adopts a microfluidic approach involving the use of flow-focusing microfluidic geometry for microgel fabrication. This approach generates highly monodisperse microgels whose size can be tuned by altering various fabrication conditions (including the concentration of the gel-forming solution and the flow rates of different phases). By using tetracycline hydrochloride as a model agent, the fabricated microgels enable prolonged agent release, with the encapsulation efficiency being around 30–40% depending on the concentration of the gel-forming solution. Along with their negligible cytotoxicity, our microgels show the potential to serve as carriers of bioactive agents for food and pharmaceutical applications.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). |
Keywords: | microgels; microfluidics; flow-focusing geometry; nutraceuticals; controlled release |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Food Science and Nutrition (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 31 Jul 2024 13:02 |
Last Modified: | 31 Jul 2024 13:02 |
Published Version: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/13/6/787 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/pharmaceutics13060787 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:215489 |