Tailoring swelling of alginate-gelatin hydrogel microspheres by crosslinking with calcium chloride combined with transglutaminase

Nadezhda Pilipenko; Odinei Hess Gonçalves; Evandro Bona; Isabel P Fernandes; João A Pinto; Guilherme D Sorita; Fernanda Vitória Leimann; Maria Filomena Barreiro

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115035

Tailoring swelling of alginate-gelatin hydrogel microspheres by crosslinking with calcium chloride combined with transglutaminase

Carbohydr Polym. 2019 Nov 1:223:115035. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115035. Epub 2019 Jul 5.

Authors

Nadezhda Pilipenko¹, Odinei Hess Gonçalves², Evandro Bona³, Isabel P Fernandes¹, João A Pinto¹, Guilherme D Sorita², Fernanda Vitória Leimann⁴, Maria Filomena Barreiro⁵

Affiliations

¹ Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253, Bragança, Portugal; Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering - Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Campus Santa Apolónia, 5301-253, Bragança, Portugal.
² Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253, Bragança, Portugal; Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering - Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Campus Santa Apolónia, 5301-253, Bragança, Portugal; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologia de Alimentos (PPGTA), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Campo Mourão (UTFPR-CM), via Rosalina Maria Dos Santos, 1233, CEP 87301-899, Caixa Postal: 271, Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil.
³ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologia de Alimentos (PPGTA), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Campo Mourão (UTFPR-CM), via Rosalina Maria Dos Santos, 1233, CEP 87301-899, Caixa Postal: 271, Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil.
⁴ Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253, Bragança, Portugal; Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering - Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Campus Santa Apolónia, 5301-253, Bragança, Portugal; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologia de Alimentos (PPGTA), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Campo Mourão (UTFPR-CM), via Rosalina Maria Dos Santos, 1233, CEP 87301-899, Caixa Postal: 271, Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil. Electronic address: fernandaleimann@utfpr.edu.br.
⁵ Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253, Bragança, Portugal; Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering - Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Campus Santa Apolónia, 5301-253, Bragança, Portugal. Electronic address: barreiro@ipb.pt.

PMID: 31426956
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115035

Abstract

Alginate-based hydrogels can find uses in a wide range of applications, including in the encapsulation field. This type of hydrogels is usually ionically crosslinked using calcium sources giving rise to products with limited internal crosslinking. In this work, it is hypothesized that the combination of alginate crosslinked by calcium chloride (external crosslinking; ionic mechanism) with gelatin crosslinked by transglutaminase (internal crosslinking; enzymatic induced mechanism) can be used to tailor the swelling behavior of alginate-based hydrogel microspheres. A systematic study was conducted by covering process variables such as gelatin content, TGase concentration, and CaCl₂ contact time, added by statistic tools as central composite rotatable design (CCRD), principal component analysis (PCA) and multiobjective optimization, to map their effect on the resulting water content after production (expressed as swelling ratio), and swelling properties at pH 3 and 7. Among the studied variables, particle's swelling was mostly affected by the gelatin content and transglutaminase concentration.

Keywords: Alginate; Enzymatic-induced crosslinking; Gelatin; Hydrogel microspheres; Ionic crosslinking; Swelling.