Plant polyphenol compounds have been considered nutritionally important recently. However, achieving successful delivery of flavonoids and phytoestrogens via the oral route is particularly difficult, due to the formiable enzymatic and transport barriers in the gastrointestinal tract. Polymer-based delivery systems that trap molecules of interest within networks have been develpoed extensively f...

The potential utilization of encapsulation techniques in food, pharmaceutical and agricultural products preparation, presents a new alternative for complementary technologies such as targeting delivery vehicles and carriers for active food ingredients. Encapsulation could be accomplished by different techniques like: simple or complex coacervation, emulsification technique, phase separation, sp...

To address the significant clinical need for tissue-engineered therapies for the repair and regeneration of articular cartilage, many systems have recently been developed using bioactive polymer microspheres as regulators of the chondrogenic microenvironment within high-density cell cultures. In this review, we highlight various densely cellular systems utilizing polymer microspheres as three-d...

The functionality of tissue engineering scaffolds can be enhanced by localized delivery of appropriate biological macromolecules incorporated within biodegradable nanoparticles. In this research, chitosan/58 S-bioactive glass (58 S-BG) containing poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) nanoparticles has been prepared and then characterized. The effects of further addition of 58 S-BG on the structu...

Hydrogels are used in a wide variety of biomedical applications including tissue engineering, biomolecule delivery, cell delivery, and cell culture. These hydrogels are often designed with a specific biological function in mind, requiring the chemical incorporation of bioactive factors to either mimic extracellular matrix or to deliver a payload to diseased tissue. Appropriate synthetic techniq...

Chitosan is a versatile polysaccharide of biological origin. Due to the biocompatible and biodegradable nature of chitosan, it is intensively utilized in biomedical applications in scaffold engineering as an absorption enhancer, and for bioactive and controlled drug release. In cancer therapy, chitosan has multifaceted applications, such as assisting in gene delivery and chemotherapeutic delive...

Guanidinium-rich scaffolds facilitate cellular translocation and delivery of bioactive cargos through biological barriers. Although impressive uptake has been demonstrated for nonoligomeric and nonpept(o)idic guanidinylated scaffolds in cell cultures and animal models, the fundamental understanding of these processes is lacking. Charge pairing and hydrogen bonding with cell surface counterparts...

Hydrogel nanoparticles—also referred to as polymeric nanogels or macromolecular micelles—are emerging as promising drug carriers for therapeutic applications. These nanostructures hold versatility and properties suitable for the delivery of bioactive molecules, namely of biopharmaceuticals. This article reviews the latest developments in the use of self-assembled polymeric nanogels for drug del...

The clinical utility of ultrasound contrast agents has been established in diagnostic echocardiography. Recently, the use of such agents has been promoted for transport and delivery of various bioactive substances, thus providing a technique for non-invasive gene therapy and organ-specific drug delivery. In this review, we give a critical update of published studies using ultrasound contrast ag...