The spherical vaterite CaCO3 microcrystals are nowadays widely used as sacrificial templates for fabrication of various microcarriers made of biopolymers (e.g., proteins, nucleic acids, enzymes) due to porous structure and mild template elimination conditions. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that polymer microcarriers with tuned internal nanoarchitecture can be designed by employing the CaCO3 crystals of controlled porosity. The layer-by-layer deposition has been utilized to assemble shell-like (hollow) and matrix-like (filled) polymer capsules due to restricted and free polymer diffusion through the crystal pores, respectively. The crystal pore size in the range of few tens of nanometers can be adjusted without any additives by variation of the crystal preparation temperature in the range 7-45 °C. The temperature-mediated growth mechanism is explained by the Ostwald ripening of nanocrystallites forming the crystal secondary structure. Various techniques including SEM, AFM, CLSM, Raman microscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and XRD have been employed for crystal and microcapsule analysis. A three-dimensional model is introduced to describe the crystal internal structure and predict the pore cutoff and available surface for the pore diffusing molecules. Inherent biocompatibility of CaCO3 and a possibility to scale the porosity in the size range of typical biomacromolecules make the CaCO3 crystals extremely attractive tools for template assisted designing tailor-made biopolymer-based architectures in 2D to 3D targeted at drug delivery and other bioapplications.
Formulation of proteins into particulate form is a principal strategy to achieve controlled and targeted delivery, as well as to protect fragile protein molecules. Control over size, mechanical properties, and surface area (porosity) of particulate proteins has been successfully achieved by hard templating under mild conditions using porous CaCO3 microspheres. A crucial step in this approach, which determines protein content, is the loading of proteins into the CaCO3 microspheres. In this study, the adsorption of different proteins into the microspheres has been investigated. Proteins differing in characteristics such as molecular weight and charge have been employed: catalase (Cat), insulin (Ins), aprotinin (Apr), and protamine (Pro). Thermodynamics of adsorption equilibria have been studied, together with quantitative and qualitative analysis of protein loading and distribution in the microspheres. Protein interaction with the CaCO3 microspheres is not limited by the diffusion of protein molecules (protein dimensions are significantly smaller than microsphere pores) but is determined by the protein affinity for the microsphere surface. Cat and Ins bind much more strongly to the microspheres than Apr and Pro, which can be explained by electrostatic attractive forces. Protein binding/release and protein biological activity have been investigated as a function of pH. It is shown that pH variation during the adsorption process plays a principal role and defines not only the amount of protein adsorbed/released but also protein biological activity. Protein adsorption and microsphere elimination (by EDTA) do not affect protein bioactivity. In addition to applications for protein particle/capsule formulations, the findings of this study might help in understanding protein interactions with carbonate minerals such as calcium carbonate, which is used as a natural material for multiple applications.
Encapsulation of model proteins (catalase, insulin, aprotinin) into multilayer dextran sulphate/protamin capsules by templating on CaCO3 microparticles is investigated employing: (i) PRE-loading into CaCO3 particles by adsorption or co-synthesis and (ii) POST-loading into performed capsules. Protein encapsulation is governed by both its size and electrostatic interactions with the carbonate microparticles and multilayer shell. PRE-loading enables improved encapsulation compared to POST-loading (catalase content in capsules 630 and 70 mg · g(-1)). Bioactivity of encapsulated protein is not affected by interaction with multilayers but may be reduced at slightly alkaline pH due to CaCO3 hydrolysis. This study might help to successfully encapsulate fragile bio-macromolecules into multilayer capsules.
Polymeric scaffolds serve as valuable supports for biological cells since they offer essential features for guiding cellular organization and tissue development. The main challenges for scaffold fabrication are i) to tune an internal structure and ii) to load bio-molecules such as growth factors and control their local concentration and distribution. Here, a new approach for the design of hollow polymeric scaffolds using porous CaCO3 particles (cores) as templates is presented. The cores packed into a microfluidic channel are coated with polymers employing the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique. Subsequent core elimination at mild conditions results in formation of the scaffold composed of interconnected hollow polymer microspheres. The size of the cores determines the feature dimensions and, as a consequence, governs cellular adhesion: for 3T3 fibroblasts an optimal microsphere size is 12 μm. By making use of the carrier properties of the porous CaCO3 cores, the microspheres are loaded with BSA as a model protein. The scaffolds developed here may also be well suited for the localized release of bio-molecules using external triggers such as IR-light.
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