Sharif Digital Repository

Most natural folate derivatives are highly sensitive to temperature, oxygen and light and their stability depends on food process condition. Alginate and pectin were evaluated for folic acid encapsulation and increasing its stability. By combining them and optimising encapsulation condition the efficiency was enhanced up to 90% . Furthermore, using polymers in combined form caused decrease in folic acid leakage from capsules in acidic condition of stomach. First of all, the time of encapsulation was measured which was 140-180 minutes. In this study the effect of Calcium Chloride concentration on encapsulation was studied. Therefore, two variables were selected which were pectin to algine... 

In this research, we developed a drug release system of two biocompatible and biodegradable polymers and biocompatible ceramic nanoparticles. Hydrogels of sodium alginate (SA) were crosslinked using calcium chloride. The SA hydrogels were blended with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and mixed with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HAP) to make hydrogel nanocomposites in the form of microbeads as drug carriers. Ciprofloxacin was selected as a model antibiotic drug for treatment of bone infection. It was found that SA and PVP form hydrogen bonds and are miscible at whole range of concentrations. Indeed, the SA/PVP blends may be considered as interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs). HAP nanoparticles... 

In this thesis, a novel graphene oxide (GO)/sodium alginate (SA)/polyacrylamide (PAM) ternary nanocomposite hydrogel with excellent mechanical performance has been fabricated through freeradical polymerization of acrylamide (AAm) and SA in the presence of GO in an aqueous system followed with ionically crosslinking of calcium ions. Physical and chemical characteristics of the composite were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The swelling behaviors of the composite hydrogels were investigated under varying conditions of time and pH. The optimized swelling capacity in standard conditions was found to be 1711% per gram of the hydrogel. The... 

Due to the increased public awareness about the role of food on health, an increased interest of consuming fortified food has grown rapidly. Probiotic bacteria and DHA poly-unsaturated fatty acid are two major bioactive ingredients becoming increasingly popular in food fortification industry due to their beneficial effects. However, high susceptibility of probiotic bacteria during production, maintenance and digestion in acidic and enzymatic conditions of gastrointestinal tract results in decreasing the survivability and therefore reducing health effects in body. Besides, having multiple double bonds in the structure of DHA fatty acid leads to oxidative degradation that produces volatile... 

β-galactosidase enzyme is immobilized from Kluyveromyces lactis by Microencapsulation method in various compositions of sodium alginate and Carboxymethyl cellulose. Optimum stabilization was gained at 1.85% sodium alginate, 0.9% carboxymethyl cellulose and 2% calcium chloride through applying Surface response methodology. Yield of immobilization and activity was 54.94% and 65.27%. variation of yield of immobilization versus alginate concentration was a quadratic curve with the maximum. When alginate's concentrations is low, the cavities diameter is great, so the enzyme leaks from capsule while immobilizing. At high concentrations of alginate, despite the smaller cavities, immobilization... 

Skin as the largest organ of the body is constructed of three distinctive layers referred to as epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. Epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin and acts as body’s first barrier against infectious agents and contains mostly sweat glands. Dermis is the mid-layer of the skin which makes up to 70% of the skin and plays a significant role in maintaining body’s metabolism and is home to a huge part of skin’s vascular network, nerve cells and hair follicles. Hypodermis on other hand, is the deepest layer of the skin and mainly acts as a bonding layer between upper skin layers and the soft tissue underneath. Although skin is proved to have a profound ability to... 

In the past decades, hydrogels have been used as an adsorbent with high potential to remove pollutants in water. Hydrogels are three-dimensional polymer networks that have the ability to absorb and store water and water-soluble compounds due to the presence of hydrophilic functional groups in their structure. Different particles with unique characteristics can be used to increase the efficiency of hydrogel absorption. Based on the type of pollutant, hydrogels are divided into three different forms, including particles, films and nanocomposites. In this research, the absorption effect of metal cations as well as the absorption kinetics of polyvinyl pyrrolidine-based hydrogels, sodium... 

With the rapid development of biotechnology, peptide and protein drugs are now playing an increasingly important role in therapeutics. Compared with chemical drugs, peptide and protein drugs have some limitations such as low stability and rapid deactivation. Biodegradable and biocompatible polymeric micro carriers have been shown to have a high potential for the delivery of peptides and proteins. Among these polymers, alginate has been widely investigated as a biomaterial. Alginates are natural polysaccharide polymers isolated from brown seaweed. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) loaded calcium alginate microspheres produced in this study by a modified w/o emulsification method. The influence of... 

Probiotics are defined as essential live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. In order to provide health benefits for probiotic bacteria it has been recommended that they must be present at a minimum level of 106 CFU/g of food product or 107 CFU/g at point of delivery or be eaten in sufficient amounts to yield a daily intake of 108 CFU. Several studies have shown that certain strain of lactic acid bacteria, such as Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus acidophilus prevent some diseases linked to the gastro-intestinal tract. however, many reports have demonstrated their poor survival and stability. Their survival in the... 

In the present research the methods and challenges to ocular drug delivery have been investigated with more emphasis on ocular diseases that do not have any approved treatment. Periocular route is a promising alternative to the common routes of ocular drug delivery especially for treatment of posterior eye diseases. Based on barriers for efficient drug delivery to the eye, magnetic drug targeting revealed to be influential to eliminate some obstacles of this route which has not been worked before. It is hypothesized that the particles can pulled into the eye or will be trapped inside the sclera tissue or even if it is not happened, they can stay behind the sclera and magnetic force can... 

Myocardial Infarction occurs due to sudden blockage in a coronary artery and causes necrosis of myocardial tissue. Since myocardium is unable to self-regenerate, cardiac tissue engineering has become a promising therapeutic approach for MI treatment by restoring heart function via combination of cells, biomaterials and signaling factors. For this purpose, myocardial extracellular matrix (ECM) is an attractive biomaterial providing better biomimetic for cultured cells. In this project, we synthesized an in situ forming hydrogel derived from myocardial ECM and for improving mechanical and electrical properties of ECM hydrogel we added oxidized alginate (OA) with 5% oxidation degree and APTMS... 

Microfluidic systems have the ability to produce microgels with uniform size distribution and spherical shape due to the laminar flow and better control of the flow rates. Spherical microgels with same size can be used as high-potential carriers for drug release. An important challenge in the production of these drug-carrying microgels is the simultaneous process of drug loading into microgels and their production. The overall goal of this project was to produce drug-carrying microgels with uniform size distribution that show controlled drug release. To achieve this goal, various factors such as the type of polymer, the type of drug, the volume ratio of the polymer and the drug and the... 

Recently, diamond nanoparticles have attracted interest for biomedical applications such as drug delivery, targeted cancer therapies, fabrication of tissue scaffolds and biosensors. In the present work, elecrophoretic deposition (EPD) of nanodiamond-bioactive glass-alginate nanocomposite was studied. In vitro bioactivity and biocompatibility of the nanocomposite were evaluated in simulated body fluid (SBF) and by MTT assay. The EPD process was performed under different conditions in order to obtain a uniform coating on the surface of 316L stainless steel substrate. The stability of the suspension was determined via optical sedimentation method and zeta potential analysis. It was found that... 

Building complex and functional tissues and organs is very challenging. One of the challenges is building an efficient network of blood vessels that can be used to facilitate the transport of nutrients and oxygen to the host. In addition to using channels for oxygen supply, another solution is to use oxygen-carrying materials. In this study, in addition to designing and simulating scaffolds with multi-scale microchannels, calcium peroxide was used to release oxygen and eliminate hypoxia in the scaffold. Here alginate is used as the main material for scaffolding. In an attempt to build a scaffold using a bio-printer, pluronic acid was also used as a sacrificial material to create canals.... 

Three sizes of silica nanoparticles (160±7, 450±10 and 600±25) were sythetized via template-removing method. The synthetized nanoparticles were functionalized with N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyl trimethoxy-silane (EDS) to provide a positive charge on the surface of nanoparticles. BET analysis showed that the average pore diameter, surface area and pore volume of nanoparticles were 2.3 nm, 769 m2.g-1 and 0.44 cm3.g-1, respectively. showed that the Amine-functionalized silica nanoparticles were used to enhance the application of alginate polymer for 3D encapsulation of mammalian cells. Incorporating of silica nanoparticles can be suitable for the bead integrity and attachement of mammalian... 

Tissue engineering is a science that tries to create new tissues by using cells, growth factors and appropriate biological materials in order to repair damaged organs and replace parts lost due to various reasons. In this research, the effect of adding mxene sheets on the oxidized alginate-gelatin hydrogel scaffold was investigated. For this purpose, mxene nanosheets were first synthesized by Max phase chemical etching and its synthesis was confirmed by X-ray diffraction spectroscoy, field emission scanning electron microscope, X-ray energy diffraction spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy. Then, in order to prepare the scaffolds, different amounts of... 

Successful treatment of bone infections is a major orthopedic challenge due to the physiological and anatomical features of bone. In this project, we prepared a drug delivery system with injectable and biodegradable polysaccharide agar containing alginate, polyvinyl alcohol and hydroxyapatite nanocarriers composite microspheres. Alginate and polyvinyl alcohol composite microspheres are crosslinked by calcium and freeze-thawing technique. Using the freeze thawing process for polyvinyl alcohol crosslinking, in addition to alginate crosslinking, improved hydrogel swelling behavior and enhanced drug loading and thus slowed drug release, drug loading increased with increasing PVA percentage from ... 

In the past few decades, many attempts have been made to combine the benefits of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. The immobilization of homogeneous catalysts onto the surface of heterogeneous supports is the result of such efforts. In this research, immobilized heterogeneous catalysts were designed and synthesized based on double network hydrogels, which produce from interpenetrating of two biocompatible and biodegradable polymer networks. In order to provide magnetic responsibility and easy separation of catalyst from the reaction mixture, the magnetic nanoparticles were dispersed onto the surface of double network hydrogel. Finally, various metal nanoparticles such as palladium and... 

Hydrogels are polymeric three-dimensional networks able to swell in the presence of an aqueous medium. Hydrogels from natural proteins and polysaccharides are ideal scaffolds for tissue engineering since they resemble the extracellular matrices of tissue comprised of various amino acids and sugar-based macromolecules.The biocompatible and biodegradable hydrogel scaffolds are promising materials for tissue engineering. Here, we report a new class of hydrogels derived from oxidized alginate (OA) and gelatin. The prepared oxidized alginate was shown to be efficient in crosslinking gelatin, leading to hydrogel formation. The effect of degree of oxidation and concentration of OA on the mechanical... 

Mammalian cardiac tissue lacks the ability to effectively self-regenerate following severe damage. The application of external therapeutic agents with strong mechanical properties is needed to restore its function. Even though conventional therapies have several challenges and limitations, injectable hydrogels, with minimally invasive, can significantly improve cardiac tissue regeneration. Extracellular matrices are the most appropriate biomaterials for synthesizing cardiac scaffolds. The human amniotic membrane obtained from the amniotic sac is a readily available, abundant, and inexpensive candidate that has been successfully utilized for the clinical treatment of cardiac diseases....