Research articles
Preparation of magnetic microgels based on dextran for stimuli-responsive release of doxorubicin

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2020.167394Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Magnetic dextran microgels with physically doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared.

  • Magnetic property of the dextran microgels depend strongly on the size and content of Fe3O4.

  • Doxorubicin (DOX) was successfully encapsulated into the magnetic dextran microgels.

  • A pH/magnetic field dual-responsive release profile of DOX was demonstrated.

Abstract

Hydrogel nanocomposites incorporated with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were widely researched as promising candidate for environment-responsive drug delivery, due to their unique magnetic properties and quick response to an external magnetic field. In this study, dextran-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4) with various particle size were prepared and embedded physically into dextran microgels formed via Schiff base reactions between aldehyded dextran and diamine in W/O inverse microemulsion, leading to a series of magnetic microgels with MNPs content of 3, 6, 9% by weight percentage. Similar superparamagnetic properties of as prepared microgels with Fe3O4 nanoparticles were proved, and their saturation magnetization increased with the increasing particle size or content of the MNPs. Antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX) was encapsulated into the magnetic dextran microgels, and pH/magnetic field dual-responsive release profiles of DOX were demonstrated. Moreover, the release rate of DOX decreased obviously with the increasing MNPs content, probably due to the diffusion barrier for drug movement resulted from the reduced pore size of hydrogel matrix in respond to external magnetic field. These results indicate that the magnetic dextran microgels can serve as stimuli-sensitive drug delivery systems.

Graphical abstract

Magnetic dextran microgels incorporated with Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared and a pH/magnetic field dual sensitive drug release behavior was demonstrated.

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Section snippets

Introductions

Hydrogel nanocomposites, which are composed of polymeric hydrogel and organic nanoparticles embedded in the hydrogel matrix, have recently attracted interests by their unique inorganic/organic hybrid structure, improved mechanical properties and accelerated response as remote controlled biomaterials [1], [2]. Nanoparticles that can generate heat under specific stimuli, including the carbon nanotubes, gold and magnetic nanoparticles are widely used for the preparations of hydrogel

Materials

Dextran T40 (Mw: 40 000 Da), dextran T70 (Mw: 70 000 Da), ethylenediamine (AR, 98%), sodium periodate (NaIO4, AR, 99.5%), doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX·HCl, 98%) and cyclohexane (AR, 99.5%) were purchased from Aladdin CO. Ltd. (Shanghai, China) and used as received. Iron(III) chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3·6H2O, reagent grade, 98%), iron(II) chloride tetrahydrate (FeCl2·4H2O, reagent grade, 98%), Span 80 (Sorbitan monooleate), Tween 80 and Brij L4 were purchased from Sigma Aldrich Chemical Co.

Characteristics of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles

Magnetic Fe3O4 nanocrystal (also known as magnetite) is amongst the most widely used iron oxide nanoparticles for bio-applications, due to their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and superparamagnetic properties as the size changed dramatically to smaller than 20 nm. In order to prepare magnetic hydrogels doped with Fe3O4 NPs via the physically blending method, water-soluble Fe3O4 NPs were synthesized via aqueous co-precipitation of Fe2+/Fe3+ salt using dextran as polymeric

Conclusions

A series of magnetic dextran microgels with various MNPs loading were conveniently prepared by physically blending of Fe3O4 NPs into dextran microgels formed via Schiff base reactions between aldehyded dextran and diamine in W/O inverse microemulsion. All the resulted magnetic microgels showed superparamagnetic behaviors and their magnetic properties were strongly affected by the size and content of Fe3O4 NPs. In vitro release behavior study demonstrated a magnetic field/pH dual sensitive DOX

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Lihua He: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Rong Zheng: Investigation. Jie Min: Investigation. Fulin Lu: Investigation. Changqiang Wu: Methodology. Yunfei Zhi: Investigation. Shaoyun Shan: Writing - review & editing. Hongying Su: Conceptualization, Validation, Supervision, Writing - review & editing, Project administration.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51963013, 51503090].

References (29)

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