Encapsulation studies and selective membrane permeability properties

Published:2012-11-06 14:25:05 From:Editor hits：

Encapsulation has been developed as a tool for the transport of cells or proteins into the human organism. The therapeutic potential of encapsulated cells or proteins is promising for treating patients who suffer from tissue loss, neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes, liver failure, and other diseases caused by specific vital cellular dysfunctions.1 Most biological processes, such as molecular recognition, signal transduction, and molecular transport, occur at native cell surfaces. Thus, a variety of capsules with semi-permeability membrane were extensively investigated as cell membrane models in the past decades.2–5 To be efficient for biomedical applications, the membrane of capsules must be able to not only protect the cells or proteins from attack by the host immune system but also maintain viable functions by allowing the passage of oxygen, nutrients and substrates as well as the egress of the products. Consequently, it is necessary to measure, and then to control, the permeability of the membrane of capsules. Furthermore, as a nanocarrier, large encapsulation capability is also desirable. Polymeric hollow nanospheres are attractive functional materials due to their potential for encapsulation of large quantities of guest molecules or large sized guests within the "empty" core domain.6–8 Hollow nanospheres could be obtained by different approaches, such as layer-by-layer (LBL) selfassembly, core-shell micelles made of block copolymer or noncovalently connected micelles (NCCM),9–11 however, these methods need physical or chemical procedures to remove the core or the template.12 Since Jenekhe and Chen reported that rigid-coil copolymers could self assemble to form hollow nanospheres directly in their selective solvent,13,14 over the past ten years, this novel approach aroused many researchers’ interest in using rigid-coil systems to construct hollow nanospheres.15–19 However, these self-assembled hollow nanospheres lack biocompatibility and non-biodegradability because the rod-like blocks are p-conjugated long chains formed by the synthesis method.

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Encapsulation studies and selective membrane permeability properties