Soheila Honary 
,
Soheila Honary ,
Maryam Maleki,
Maryam Maleki,
M Karami,
M Karami,
For correspondence:- Soheila Honary Email: shonary@yahoo.com Tel:+00989121452220
Received: 29 November 2008 Accepted: 21 October 2008 Published: 23 February 2009
Citation: Honary S, Honary S, Maleki M, Maleki M, Karami M, Karami M, The effect of chitosan molecular weight on the properties of alginate/ chitosan microparticles containing prednisolone. Trop J Pharm Res 2009; 8(1):53-61 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v8i1.8
© 2009 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of chitosan molecular weight on size, size distribution, release rate, mucoadhesive properties and electrostatic bonding of alginate/chitosan microparticles containing prednisolone.
Methods: Three mucoadhesive alginate/chitosan microparticle formulations, f1, f2 and f3, were prepared using low, medium and high chitosan molecular weight (MW) chitosan, respectively, by directly spraying alginate solution into a solution of chitosan and calcium chloride at optimum conditions. Prednisolone was incorporated in the alginate solution prior to spraying. The microparticles were then evaluated for prednisolone content, size, release rate, and mucoadhesive properties using appropriate methods. The formation of electrostatic and hydrogen bonds between chitosan and alginate was assessed by differential scanning calorimetetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR).
Results: The results indicate that high MW chitosan microparticles were significantly (p<0.05) smaller and more uniform in size, with better mucoadhesive properties and lower release rate than the other formulations. FTIR and DSC studies indicate that stronger hydrogen and electrostatic bonding in the formulation containing high MW chitosan than inthe other formulations.
Conclusion: The physicochemical properties of chitosan-alginate microparticles are dependent on the molecular weight of chitosan.
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