Potential doxorubicin delivery system based on magnetic gelatin microspheres crosslinked with sugars

Abstract The preparation and characterization of magnetic microspheres based on gelatin for use in drug delivery systems are reported. Sugars were employed as crosslinking agents and type A gelatin and type B gelatin were compared to prepare microspheres by water-in-oil emulsion. The influence of gelatin and sucrose concentration, temperature and stirring speed on microbeads’ characteristics was studied. The gelatin concentration and stirring speed were the parameters directly associated with the particle sizes. We found no relevant difference between the use of type A and type B gelatin. In addition, the gelatin crosslinking study revealed that sucrose is not a crosslinking agent but fructose can crosslink the protein chains when the reaction medium has pH 9. The size of the microspheres varied from 5 to 60 μm as measured by optical microscopic images. Doxorubicin adsorption and release were successfully performed using the microspheres crosslinked with fructose under the action of an external magnetic field. It was observed that the microspheres absorbed 69% of the doxorubicin that was in solution. After 24 h, about 45% of the DOX was displaced from microspheres to saline medium in the free form in the solution.