Cargando…

Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels

Alginate is a polysaccharide obtained from brown seaweed that is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological applications due to its versatility as a viscosifier and gelling agent. Here, we investigated the influence of the addition of glucose on the structure and mechanical properties...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia, Assifaoui, Ali, Cousin, Fabrice, Moser, Josefine, Bonilla, Mauricio R., Ström, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871698/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35200453
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/gels8020071
_version_ 1784657058095693824
author Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia
Assifaoui, Ali
Cousin, Fabrice
Moser, Josefine
Bonilla, Mauricio R.
Ström, Anna
author_facet Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia
Assifaoui, Ali
Cousin, Fabrice
Moser, Josefine
Bonilla, Mauricio R.
Ström, Anna
author_sort Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia
collection PubMed
description Alginate is a polysaccharide obtained from brown seaweed that is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological applications due to its versatility as a viscosifier and gelling agent. Here, we investigated the influence of the addition of glucose on the structure and mechanical properties of alginate solutions and calcium-alginate hydrogels produced by internal gelation through crosslinking with Ca(2+). Using (1)H low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS), we showed that alginate solutions at 1 wt % present structural heterogeneities at local scale whose size increases with glucose concentration (15–45 wt %). Remarkably, the molecular conformation of alginate in the gels obtained from internal gelation by Ca(2+) crosslinking is similar to that found in solution. The mechanical properties of the gels evidence an increase in gel strength and elasticity upon the addition of glucose. The fitting of mechanical properties to a poroelastic model shows that structural changes within solutions prior to gelation and the increase in solvent viscosity contribute to the gel strength. The nanostructure of the gels (at local scale, i.e., up to few hundreds of Å) remains unaltered by the presence of glucose up to 30 wt %. At 45 wt %, the permeability obtained by the poroelastic model decreases, and the Young’s modulus increases. We suggest that macro (rather than micro) structural changes lead to this behavior due to the creation of a network of denser zones of chains at 45 wt % glucose. Our study paves the way for the design of calcium-alginate hydrogels with controlled structure for food and pharmaceutical applications in which interactions with glucose are of relevance.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8871698
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88716982022-02-25 Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia Assifaoui, Ali Cousin, Fabrice Moser, Josefine Bonilla, Mauricio R. Ström, Anna Gels Article Alginate is a polysaccharide obtained from brown seaweed that is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological applications due to its versatility as a viscosifier and gelling agent. Here, we investigated the influence of the addition of glucose on the structure and mechanical properties of alginate solutions and calcium-alginate hydrogels produced by internal gelation through crosslinking with Ca(2+). Using (1)H low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS), we showed that alginate solutions at 1 wt % present structural heterogeneities at local scale whose size increases with glucose concentration (15–45 wt %). Remarkably, the molecular conformation of alginate in the gels obtained from internal gelation by Ca(2+) crosslinking is similar to that found in solution. The mechanical properties of the gels evidence an increase in gel strength and elasticity upon the addition of glucose. The fitting of mechanical properties to a poroelastic model shows that structural changes within solutions prior to gelation and the increase in solvent viscosity contribute to the gel strength. The nanostructure of the gels (at local scale, i.e., up to few hundreds of Å) remains unaltered by the presence of glucose up to 30 wt %. At 45 wt %, the permeability obtained by the poroelastic model decreases, and the Young’s modulus increases. We suggest that macro (rather than micro) structural changes lead to this behavior due to the creation of a network of denser zones of chains at 45 wt % glucose. Our study paves the way for the design of calcium-alginate hydrogels with controlled structure for food and pharmaceutical applications in which interactions with glucose are of relevance. MDPI 2022-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8871698/ /pubmed/35200453 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/gels8020071 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia
Assifaoui, Ali
Cousin, Fabrice
Moser, Josefine
Bonilla, Mauricio R.
Ström, Anna
Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels
title Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels
title_full Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels
title_fullStr Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels
title_full_unstemmed Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels
title_short Impact of Glucose on the Nanostructure and Mechanical Properties of Calcium-Alginate Hydrogels
title_sort impact of glucose on the nanostructure and mechanical properties of calcium-alginate hydrogels
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871698/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35200453
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/gels8020071
work_keys_str_mv AT lopezsanchezpatricia impactofglucoseonthenanostructureandmechanicalpropertiesofcalciumalginatehydrogels
AT assifaouiali impactofglucoseonthenanostructureandmechanicalpropertiesofcalciumalginatehydrogels
AT cousinfabrice impactofglucoseonthenanostructureandmechanicalpropertiesofcalciumalginatehydrogels
AT moserjosefine impactofglucoseonthenanostructureandmechanicalpropertiesofcalciumalginatehydrogels
AT bonillamauricior impactofglucoseonthenanostructureandmechanicalpropertiesofcalciumalginatehydrogels
AT stromanna impactofglucoseonthenanostructureandmechanicalpropertiesofcalciumalginatehydrogels