Nano spray-dried particles of in-situ crosslinked alginate and their toxicological characterisation

Levanič, Jaka (author), Osojnik Črnivec, Ilja Gasan (author), Rozman, Iza (author), Skrt, Mihaela (author), Štern, Alja (author), Žegura, Bojana (author), Poklar Ulrih, Nataša (author)

The feasibility and technical capacity for producing crosslinked sub-micron gels with a nano spray-dryer were studied with variable pH systems incorporating alginate, pectin, and pullulan. The obtained powders were characterized for their morphology, particle size distribution, and their toxicological safety profile using genotoxicity and cytotoxicity assays. Additionally, quercetin was added to the encapsulation system to study the potential of the system to encapsulate this material. The produced powders exhibited morphologies and particle size distributions characteristic for nano spray-drying. The addition of pullulan and pectin to the feed solutions resulted in a particle size increase, with crosslinked alginate particles having a mean value of 1.43 μm, while particles with added pectin and pullulan had a mean particle size of 1.70 and 1.75 μm, respectively. The inclusion of quercetin proved to be problematic with this encapsulation system. Extremely high degradation rates and extremely low encapsulation efficiencies were observed due to the alkaline pH (~10) of the system that is needed to keep the feed dispersion in a liquid state and prevent premature crosslinking of the alginate. Although pectin and pullulan provided some protection for quercetin in the alkaline dispersion, the absolute quercetin content in the final product remained very low, with a maximum achieved encapsulation efficiency of 2.06 %. The safety profile of most produced powders was favourable, as they did not exhibit any significant cytotoxic and genotoxic activity in the HepG2 cell line, except in the case of Alginate/Pullulan which showed a 43 % decrease in cell viability at 500 μg/mL. Samples where quercetin was added did not show any increased toxicological effect.

• Language: English
• Keywords: alginate, polysaccharides, crosslinking, nano spray drying, toxicological evaluation
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 11 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 283, pt. 2, art. 137750
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-164997
• UDC: 630*8
• ISSN on article: 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.137750
• COBISS.SI-ID: 215666435
• Publication date in RUL: 20.11.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of biological macromolecules
• Shortened title: Int. j. biol. macromol.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1879-0003
• COBISS.SI-ID: 107163139

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: alginat, polisaharidi, zamreženje, nanosušenje, toksikološka ocena