Mechanical stability of multicomponent polysaccharide microcapsules

Nowadays one can observe the explosion in recovery of new polysaccharidic materials with specific controllable properties, including mechanical characteristic, morphology, biological activity and biodegradability. Specifically, formation and application of hydrogel microcapsules by biomedical and pharmaceutical industry seem to be very promising (Wang, et al., 2006). Despite many successful applications of various systems described already in literature, including the most popular alginate/Ca one, it is still very challenging to obtain materials with fully tunable morphological properties (membrane cut-off) and which are mechanically stable during storage and application at various conditions This is particularly critical in physiological solutions and for in vivo applications (for example stability during some weeks stirring in bioreactor or some months after transplantation etc.). Therefore, numerous groups all over the world have been looking for the best way to improve the mechanical stability of classical alginate/polyvalent metal capsules.