Preparation of gelatin beads treated with glucose and glycerol

Abstract Gelatin is employed in pharmaceutical applications because of its biodegradability, biocompatibility and low toxicity. However, it may be necessary to promote gelatin crosslinking in order to develop drug release systems and extend release times. SEC analyses are used here for the first time to monitor the evolution of molar mass distributions of gelatins during treatment with glycerol and glucose in dispersed media. Unambiguous experimental evidence of gelatin crosslinking in presence of sugars and glycerol has yet to be presented. SEC results indicate that average molar masses decrease during gelatin treatment, while FT-IR analyses indicate that gelatins are subject to structural modifications during processing, which can explain the decrease of gelatin solubility after treatment. The results presented here indicate the importance of using SEC techniques to monitor gelatin crosslinking, as they seemingly contradict previously published results that make use of indirect measures for this purpose.

摘要 明胶因具备生物可降解性、生物相容性与低毒性，被应用于制药领域。然而，为开发药物释放体系并延长释药时长，往往需要促进明胶的交联反应。本研究首次采用尺寸排阻色谱（Size Exclusion Chromatography，SEC）分析，对分散介质中明胶经甘油与葡萄糖处理过程的摩尔质量分布演变进行监测。目前尚未有明确的实验证据可证明糖类与甘油共存时明胶会发生交联。SEC分析结果表明，明胶在处理过程中平均摩尔质量有所降低；而傅里叶变换红外光谱（Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy，FT-IR）分析显示，明胶在处理过程中发生了结构修饰，这可解释处理后明胶溶解度下降的现象。本研究结果凸显了采用SEC技术监测明胶交联过程的重要性，因为该技术的结论似乎与此前采用间接手段开展相关研究所得到的结果相悖。