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Investigation of mechanical properties of soft hydrogel microcapsules in relation to protein delivery using a MEMS force sensor
Author(s) -
Kim Keekyoung,
Cheng Ji,
Liu Qun,
Wu Xiao Yu,
Sun Yu
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.32338
Subject(s) - microscale chemistry , materials science , capacitive sensing , microelectromechanical systems , coating , chitosan , composite material , mechanical compression , self healing hydrogels , emulsion , biomedical engineering , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , medicine , mathematics education , mathematics , computer science , engineering , operating system
This article reports the investigation of mechanical properties of alginate–chitosan microcapsules and the relation to protein delivery. For microscale compression testing, a system based on a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitive force sensor was developed. The bulk microfabricated capacitive force sensors are capable of resolving forces up to 110 μN with a resolution of 33.2 nN along two independent axes. The monolithic force sensors were directly applied to characterizing mechanical properties of soft hydrogel microparticles without assembling additional end‐effectors. Protein‐loaded alginate–chitosan microcapsules of ∼20 μm in diameter were prepared by an emulsion‐internal gelation‐polyelectrolyte coating method. Young's modulus values of individual microcapsules with 1, 2, and 3% chitosan coating were determined through microscale compression testing in both distilled deionized (DDI) water and pH 7.4 phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS). Protein release rates were also determined in DDI water and PBS. Finally, protein release rates were correlated with mechanical properties of the microcapsules. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2010