Preparation of gelatin beads treated with glucose and glycerol

Abstract

Gelatin is employed in pharmaceutical applications because of its biodegradability, biocompatibility and low toxicity. However, it may be necessary to promote gelatin crosslinking in order to develop drug release systems and extend release times. SEC analyses are used here for the first time to monitor the evolution of molar mass distributions of gelatins during treatment with glycerol and glucose in dispersed media. Unambiguous experimental evidence of gelatin crosslinking in presence of sugars and glycerol has yet to be presented. SEC results indicate that average molar masses decrease during gelatin treatment, while FT-IR analyses indicate that gelatins are subject to structural modifications during processing, which can explain the decrease of gelatin solubility after treatment. The results presented here indicate the importance of using SEC techniques to monitor gelatin crosslinking, as they seemingly contradict previously published results that make use of indirect measures for this purpose.