Fish Oil Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Fish Oil, including details on omega-3, dosage, health benefits, diet.

Linolenic acid-modified chitosan for formation of self-assembled nanoparticles.

Liu CG, Desai KG, Chen XG, Park HJ

Life Science College, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, People's Republic of China.

Chitosan was modified by coupling with linolenic acid through the 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyyl)carbodiimide-mediated reaction. The degree of substitution was measured by 1H NMR, and it was 1.8%, i.e., 1.8 linolenic acids group per 100 anhydroglucose units. The critical aggregation concentration (CAC) of the self-aggregate of hydrophobically modified chitosan was determined by measuring the fluorescence intensity of the pyrene as a fluorescent probe. The CAC value in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution (pH 7.4) was 5 x 10(-2) mg/mL. The average particle size of self-aggregates of hydrophobically modified chitosan in PBS solution (pH 7.4) was 210.8 nm with a unimodal size distribution ranging from 100 to 500 nm. A transmission electron microscopy study showed that the formation of near spherical shape nanoparticles had enough structural integrity. The loading ability of hydrophobically modified chitosan (LA-chitosan) was investigated by using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein. Self-aggregated nanoparticles exhibited an increased loading capacity (19.85 +/- 0.04 to 37.57 +/- 0.25%) with an increasing concentration of BSA (0.1-0.5 mg/mL).

Published 19 January 2005 in J Agric Food Chem, 53(2): 437-41.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Fish Oil Research Today. All Rights Reserved.