Fabrication of Porous Gelatin Microfibers Using an Aqueous Wet Spinning Process

Abstract

Alginate has a unique property of gel formation by chelating with divalent cations such as Ca+2 in aqueous solution. The sol-gel characteristic of alginate has been utilized to fabricate both microsphere and microcapsule for cell immobilization. In this study, a wet spinning process was employed to prepare fibers comprised of gelatin and sodium alginate. Gelatin fibers containing interconnected porous structure were fabricated by the extraction of alginate from these gelatin/alginate composite fibers with phosphate buffer. The application of these porous gelatin fibers for enzyme immobilization was demonstrated by its usage as the base material of glucose biosensor. © 2009 Informa UK Ltd.