Selection of Water-Soluble Chitosan by Microwave-Assisted Degradation and pH-Controlled Precipitation.

ABSTRACT: In the field of gene therapy, chitosan (CS) gained interest for its promise as a non-viral DNA vector. However, commercial sources of CS lack precise characterization and do not generally reach sufficient solubility in aqueous media for in vitro and in vivo evaluation. As low molecular weight CS showed improved solubility, we investigated the process of CS depolymerization by acidic hydrolysis, using either long time heating at 80 °C or short time microwave-enhanced heating. The resulting depolymerized chitosan (dCS) were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to determine their average molecular weight (Mn, Mp and Mw), polydispersity index (PD) and degree of deacetylation (DD). We emphasized the production of water-soluble CS (so

SUBMITTER: Journot CMA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7362083 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature