Controlled release of albumin from chitosan—alginate microcapsules

Abstract

A polymeric delayed‐release protein delivery system was investigated with albumin as a model drug. The polysaccharide chitosan was reacted with sodium alginate in the presence of calcium chloride to form microcapsules with a polyelectrolyte complex membrane. Variables believed to be important for membrane formation were examined; these included reaction time, chitosan molecular weight, alginate concentration, chitosan concentration, and solution pH. An alginate‐chitosan reaction time, in the range of 10 to 45 min, had no effect on the release of albumin. Increasing the alginate concentration, however, resulted in a decreased rate of release of albumin (from 37% release at 4 h with 1.5% alginate to 20% release with 2.5% alginate). Another key variable was the chitosan molecular weight. The molecular weight of chitosan was varied from 1.25 × 106 to 0.25 × 108 through a nitrite oxidation reaction with sodium nitrite. Decreasing the molecular weight increased the release of albumin (from 37% release at 4 h with high molecular weight chitosan to 77% release with low molecular weight chitosan). The pH of the extracapsular environment was found to affect the release of albumin significantly (15% release over 24 h at a pH 3.0 and 73% release at pH 8.0). Capsules produced with high molecular weight chitosan and a combination of high and low molecular weight chitosan gave the best results for reducing elution of albumin in the first 4 h and increasing elution in the following 20 h. Copyright © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc., A Wiley Company