in the past decade, electrospinning as a facile and effective means in producing nanofibers with diameters ranging from microns down to a few nanometers has been developed and considered important. in this work, electrospinning of an interesting natural biopolymer, sodium alginate, has been investigated. the results showed that water solution of sodium alginate cannot be electrospun into nanofi...

We investigated the suitability of ferric-ion-cross-linked alginates (Fe-alginate) with various proportions of L-guluronic acid (G) and D-mannuronic acid (M) residues as a culture substrate for human dermal fibroblasts. High-G and high-M Fe-alginate gels showed comparable efficacy in promoting initial cell adhesion and similar protein adsorption capacities, but superior cell proliferation was o...

The microencapsulation of cells has shown promise as a therapeutic vehicle for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases. While alginate microcapsules provide an ideal cell encapsulation material, polycations coatings are commonly employed to enhance stability and impart permselectivity. In this study, functionalized hyperbranched alginate and dendrimer polymers were used to generate discreet...

The availability of viable oocytes is the limiting factor in the development of new reproductive techniques. Many attempts have been made to grow immature oocytes in vitro during recent decades. Recently, a modified alginate-based three-dimensional culture system was designed to support the growth and maturation of multilayered secondary follicles. This system was able to produce oocytes that s...

Fibrin and alginate hydrogels have been widely used to support chondrogenesis of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) for articular cartilage and fibrocartilage tissue engineering, with each material offering distinct advantages and disadvantages. Attempting to produce a gel scaffold exhibiting beneficial characteristics of both materials, we fabricated fibrin/alginate blended h...

This in vitro study investigated the metabolism of human osteoarthritic (OA) chondrocytes encapsulated in a spherical matrix enriched of chitosan. Human OA chondrocytes were encapsulated and cultured for 28 days either in chitosan-alginate beads or in alginate beads. The beads were formed by slowly passing dropwise either the chitosan 0.6%-alginate 1.2% or the alginate 1.2% solution through a s...

Composite polymeric scaffolds from alginate and single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) were produced using a freeform fabrication technique. The scaffolds were characterized for their structural, mechanical, and biological properties by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, tensile testing, and cell-scaffold interaction study. Three-dimensional hybrid alginate/SWCNT tissue scaffolds ...

Inspired by biosilicification, biomimetic polymer-silica nanocomposite has aroused a lot of interest from the viewpoints of both scientific research and technological applications. In this study, a novel dual functional polymer, NH₂-Alginate, is synthesized through an oxidation-amination-reduction process. The "catalysis function" ensures the as-prepared NH₂-Alginate inducing biomimetic mineral...

The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different coating materials (i.e. Na-alginate and chitosan) on the viability and release behavior of Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum G4 in the simulated gastric fluid (SGF) and simulated intestinal fluid (SIF). This study reports the viability of encapsulated B. pseudocatenulatum G4 coated using different alginate (2-4 g/100mL) and c...

BACKGROUND Alginate lyases belonging to polysaccharide lyase family-7 (PL-7) are the most well studied on their structures and functions among whole alginate lyases. However, all characterized PL-7 alginate lyases are from prokaryotic bacteria cells. Here we report the first identification of eukaryotic PL-7 alginate lyase from marine red alga Pyropia yezoensis. METHODS The cDNA encoding an a...