BACKGROUND With the progress in medicine, the average human life expectancy is continuously increasing. At the same time, the number of patients who require full organ transplantations is augmenting. Consequently, new strategies for cell transplantation are the subject of great interest. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS This work reports the design, the synthesis and the characterisation of rob...

Given the difficulties in accessing articular cartilage as a source of chondrocytes to be used in fabricating cartilage constructs, alternative sources are required. The present study examined chondrocytes from costal cartilage for their suitability in cartilage tissue engineering. Chondrocytes isolated from rat knee and rib hyaline cartilage were separately mixed with alginate and placed in a ...

BACKGROUND Pancreatic islet encapsulation is one way to address the disadvantages of islet transplantation. Not only does encapsulation involve bidirectional diffusion of nutrients, oxygen, and glucose, but also it protects the graft from the recipient's immune reaction. The high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), one of higher expression proteins in islet, can be secreted from transplanted islets a...

Objectives: There are various obstacles in the eradication of Helicobacter.pylori (H. pylori) infections, including low antibiotic levels and poor accessibility of the drug at the site of the infection. This study describes the preparation and characterisation of novel floatingmucoadhesive alginate beads loaded with clarithromycin (CMN) for delivery to the gastric mucosa to improve the eradicat...

In this study, pH-sensitive blended polymeric beads were prepared by ionic gelation of mixed alginate and N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan (NOCC) solutions in aqueous media containing calcium chloride. To prepare drug-loaded beads, sulfasalazine (SA) as a model drug was added to the initial aqueous polymer solution. These beads were characterized and evaluated in vitro as potential carriers for colon...

Alginate-based microcapsules are used for immunoisolation of cells to release therapeutics on a minute-to-minute basis. Unfortunately, alginate-based microcapsules are suffering from varying degrees of success, which is usually attributed to differences in tissue responses. This results in failure of the therapeutic cells. In the present study we show that commercial, crude alginates may contai...

The catechol (1,2-dihydroxybenzene) can be oxidized by enzymatic action, and then turned into quinone. Laccase (EC 1.10.3.2) is an enzyme produced mainly by fungi of white decomposition, which contains copper, and catalyzes the oxidation of phenolic substrates by coupling the reduction of O 2 to water. The aim of this study is to evaluate the reutilization of Alginate Chitosan Laccase (ACL) bea...

For cell transplantation into damaged tissues, viable cells must be delivered to the defect site in a suitable carrier. However, the hypoxic and nutrient-limited environment in the carrier can induce massive cell death. The aims of this study were to increase the viability and regulate the behavior of osteoprogenitor cells encapsulated in alginate hydrogels through control of the gel microstruc...

Engineering of thick tissue constructs is often required in regenerative medicine applications. While building these thick tissue constructs, a complex vasculature is needed to deliver oxygen and nutrients to cells. One of the strategies for stimulating the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) within these constructs includes the insertion of angiogenic growth factors into the scaffolds. ...

Integrated wastewater treatment processes are needed due to the inefficient removal of emerging pharmaceuticals by single methods. Herein, an adsorbent-photocatalyst integrated material was fabricated coupling calcium alginate with sulfur-doped TiO2/tungsten disulfide (S-TiO2/WS2/alginate beads) for oxytetracycline (OTC) from aqueous solution adsorption-photocatalysis process. The semiconductor...