Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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Hyaluronic acid
PLys-
b
-PLLA
micelle
Polyion complex
(PIC) formation
Anion / Cationratio
Low
High
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PIC coated
micelles
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100 nm
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Fig. 9 Preparation of PIC-coated polymeric micelles and their atomic force microscope (AFM)
images. Reprinted from [
201
] with permission
HA-coated micelles with LSECs and Kupffer cells were investigated. The
HA-coated micelles were taken up only into LSECs. These results suggest the
potential utility of the HA-coated micelles as highly stable drug delivery vehicles
exhibiting specific accumulation into LSECs [
202
].
5 Polymersomes
Hollow capsules made of polymer-based [
203
,
204
] and/or lipid-based [
205
]
amphiphiles are of great interest because of their tremendous potential applications
in medicine, pharmacy, and biotechnology. Generally, such capsules have fluid-
filled membranes that consist of their hydrophobic part, separating the core from the
outside medium. Together with micelles, they are the most common and stable
structures of amphiphiles in water. However, unlike micelles, which mostly load
hydrophobic molecules in the hydrophobic core, hollow capsules can encapsulate
hydrophilic molecules such as dyes, proteins, and nucleic acids in the aqueous
interior and also integrate hydrophobic molecules in the hydrophobic membrane.
Indeed, various utilities of hollow capsules as drug- and gene-delivery carriers
