encapsulation

Restoring fertility in male cancer individuals through testicular tissue transplantation faces challenges due to hypoxia-induced loss of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). Hydrogel encapsulation was explored to minimize hypoxic damage in testicular tissue transplantation. For this purpose, human amnion membrane (hAM)-derived hydrogel could be an alternative.

The potential of hAM-derived hydrogel to support testis tissue grafts was evaluated.

In this experimental study, testicular tissue samples (1-3 mm3) were obtained from 16 male NMRI mice (4-5 wk, 22 ± 2 gr). These tissue fragments were either encapsulated within a hydrogel derived from a hAM or left unencapsulated (control) prior to being autologously transplanted beneath the dorsal skin of mice subjected to hemilateral or bilateral orchiectomy. The grafted testicular tissues were histologically evaluated for key parameters, including the integrity of seminiferous tubules, survival of SSCs, Sertoli cell functionality, as well as hypoxia and apoptosis on day 21.

No significant differences were observed between groups regarding ST integrity, number of SSCs, Sertoli cell functionality, or the rate of hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha and apoptosis (p ≤ 0.05).

In conclusion, this study demonstrated no effect of hAM hydrogel encapsulation on the outcomes of testicular tissue transplantation.

Staling is a major challenge in the bakery sector, contributing significantly to waste. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of microencapsulated heat-resistant α-amylase and wheat bran on batter quality and oil cake staling. α-amylase microcapsules were engineered using different ratios of chitosan and whey protein concentrate. The 75:25 formulation showed the highest enzymatic efficiency and was chosen for further analysis. The microstructure was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The microcapsule showed an almost spherical shape with irregular surfaces and visible accumulations. This study examines how different concentrations of wheat bran (5%-15%) and a 1% micro-enzyme affect batter properties and cake staling. The incorporation of wheat bran significantly increased the viscosity and density of the cake batter (p < 0). The batters with bran and micro-enzyme showed lower viscosity and density than those with only wheat bran. Adding wheat bran, alone or with enzyme microcapsules, significantly darkened the cake color. This modification increased the a* and b* color indices compared to the control group. Over time, the cakes' moisture content decreased while their hardness increased. The control sample showed the most significant changes. This research shows that adding wheat bran and α-amylase enzyme microcapsules helps produce a functional cake with a lower staling rate.

This work explores the antifungal effect of Zataria multiflora essential oil (ZEO) and its nanocapsules (ZEO-NCs) on the culture medium and UF-Feta cheese. After selecting ZEO among the three desired EOs (based on MIC and MFC assays), chitosan nanoparticles were prepared in optimal conditions. Based on GC-MS analysis, the main constituents of ZEO were thymol (20.09%) followed by cymene (19.88%), and gamma-terpinene (18.58%). According to the response surface method, the optimum amounts of chitosan, tween 80, and ZEO were 7.97% w/v, 1.3% v/v, and 0.87% v/v, respectively, to produce the proper nanoparticles with the minimum particle size and the maximum values of zeta potential and encapsulation efficiency. A sharp peak at 2θ of 20◦ in the XRD spectrum of chitosan and its broadening in the spectrum of ZEO-NCs exhibited a high degree of crystallinity and entrapment of ZEO within nanocapsules. Also, the SEM images showed clusters of accumulated particles with relatively spherical nano-sized capsules. The formulated nanocapsules showed a stronger antifungal effect on Penicillium citrinum and Aspergillus niger, while the free form of ZEO caused more inhibition of Aspergillus flavus. Also, the lowest Antifungal activity among all treatments was recorded for Non-loaded NCs.

Sesame oil (SO) is one of the edible oils beneficial to health. The use of SO due to its high content of antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids has many applications in the production of functional foods and pharmaceuticals. In recent years, many efforts have been made to use nanotechnology, including encapsulation technology, to protect functional foods from destructive environmental factors and thereby extend the shelf life of foods.

This study aimed to prepare and investigate the Physicochemical characteristics of SO-nanoemulsion coated with maltodextrin/acacia gum powder by spray drying method.

Sesame Oil-nanoemulsion (SO-NE) was prepared and encapsulated using maltodextrin and acacia gum. The coated nanoemulsion was spray dried, and its Physicochemical properties including Encapsulation Efficiency, Particle Size, Thermal Analysis, and zeta potential were investigated. The size and morphology of produced nanoparticles were investigated by FESEM imaging.

The mean particle size determined by the DLS technique and FESEM was 166.5 and 96.5 nm, respectively, with a spherical shape. The zeta potential of the coated SO-nanoemulsion was -48.1 mV, showing suitable stability. Comparison of thermograms of the coated nanoemulsion containing SO and without it did not show any change in the thermal behavior of the ingredients. According to the GC-MS analysis, the encapsulation efficiency was found to be 92.93 ± 4.61%.

It can be concluded that due to the high efficiency of encapsulation processes and spray drying technique in maintaining the Physicochemical Stability of SO, the method used in this research can be applied in the food and pharmaceutical industry.

Currently, a large number of people favor meals that are rich in nutraceuticals and phytochemical compounds, which help with the treatment or prevention of chronic diseases. Oral bioavailability is a crucial component of phytochemical bioefficiency, and endogenous mechanisms have a significant impact on how well nutraceuticals and phytochemicals are absorbed by the body. In addition to endogenous variables, exogenous factors that impact the bioavailability of bioactives include the food matrix, food processing, and food storage. Different delivery systems have evolved in this regard, and nanoscale delivery tools have also been created. Delivery methods that use nanostructured lipid carriers show benefits such as enhanced loading capacity, solubility, encapsulation effectiveness, storage stability, bioavailability, and half-life. They also provide safe food systems and regulated release. In this review, the outcomes of recent experimental reports are comprehensively reviewed. In addition, the food processing, storage, gut milieu circumstances, the release process from the food and nano delivery systems in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) milieu, interactions with other GIT constituents, main delivery systems based on nanostructured lipid carriers for their encapsulation and eventually encapsulating technological barriers, food safety concerns, and regulatory issues of nutraceutical and phytochemical compounds are discussed.

In this article published in Cell J, Vol 24, No 12, 2022, on pages 741-747, the authors found that there was somemistakes in the Table 1 and we have corrected them in the following table.The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience.

Supplementing bread probiotics is considered to be challenging because of the high baking temperatures. In this study the influence of encapsulation by tragacanth gum on the validity of Lactobacillus Plantarum and Lactobacillus acidophilus during baking and storing gluten-free sorghum bread for three days. Moreover, the effect of probiotics encapsulation on moisture content and hardness as two major factors of bread staling were investigated. The process of baking process reduced the observed validity of L. Plantarum and L. acidophilus by about 3 logs CFU/g in gluten-free sorghum bread significantly. Additionally, we found that Plantarum, L. acidophilus, and encapsulated L. during baking and storing processes strongly depend on matrix composition to survive. Encapsulation of probiotic cells by tragacanth gum can improve the viability of probiotic cells can be improved by encapsulating them by more than 2 log cycles in gluten-free sorghum bread during the storing process. The tragacanth gum showed a good protecting impact on L. Plantarum and L. acidophilus cells during 72 h storage. Overall, what the findings suggest is that encapsulating probiotics by tragacanth gum is a strategy promising to promote the survival of bacteria and delay staling of gluten-free sorghum bread.

Nanoemulsions are a colloidal dispersion of oil/water or water/oil phases stabilized by emulsifiers. The physicochemical properties of nanoemulsions have made them suitable candidates for the delivery of bioactive compounds. Oil-in-water nanoemulsions are proper carriers for hydrophobic and water-in-oil or water-in-oil-in-water nanoemulsions are good carriers for hydrophilic compounds. Saffron is an expensive bulbous stemless herb whose different bioactive ingredients including crocins, crocetin, safranal, picrocrocin, and essential oils have valuable nutritional, medicinal, pharmaceutical, and antimicrobial properties. The use of nanoemulsion technology is a promising approach for saffron processing. The emulsion liquid membrane is one of the effective techniques for extracting saffron bioactive. On the other hand, encapsulating saffron extract in nanoemulsion droplets can increase the stability, bioavailability, and controlled release of bioactive ingredients of saffron. Due to its inherent antimicrobial activity, saffron can be used in the form of nanoemulsion coatings to increase the quality and shelf life of food products. In this study, the existing studies on saffron nanoemulsions processing were reviewed. The application of nanoemulsion techniques for saffron extraction, saffron bioactive nanoencapsulation, as well as the probable preservative properties of saffron essential oils for food packaging have been discussed. This article also reveals information on two recent patents on the subject of saffron nanoemulsion by ultrasonic method.

Skin wounds are appraised as a rapidly growing threat to the economy and public health. Wound management is the main goal to promote rapid repair, with functional and esthetic outcomes. Among several wound healers, ointments are the most cost-effective and highly functional.  

Here, polysaccharide was isolated from Rosa canina and structural analysis was performed by NMR, LC-MS/MS, and FTIR. Then, the polysaccharide was encapsulated in SLN through the dialysis process. Structural analysis was committed to a survey on the physical and chemical properties of polysaccharide-SLN (PS-SLN) complex by Uv-Vis spectrophotometry, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technologies. The ointment was prepared by adding PS-SLN to R. canina oil and beeswax.  

The prepared PS-SLN nanoparticles had monodispersity with a size of about 217 nanometers.  The nano-ointment showed high stability with a pH of about 6 and a high density near 3256 centipoises. The skin absorption of the compounds was determined by the Franz cells. The in vitro skin absorption indicated that during the first 12 hr 36% of our nano-ointment’s skin permeation and then continued up to 12 hr to 51%. The higher healing rate of nano-ointment than positive control with no allergic effects confirmed its efficiency in wound management.  

The results indicated that the nano-ointment could be applied for the healing of scars in pre-clinical and clinical trials. Owing to effectual scar healing, nano-ointment may be effective in the treatment of other wounds including burn, diabetic and chronic ones.

Encapsulation of essential oil in polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) increases their retention and improves their efficacy. Here, eucalyptus essential oil (EEO) encapsulate in the chitosan (CS) NPs increases its retention, and enhances the anticancer effect of EEO.

The effects of pH, chitosan sodium tripolyphosphate ratio, and chitosan concentration on the size and charge NPs were evaluated. The success of EEO encapsulation was confirmed by FT-IR, UV–Vis spectroscopy, and GC techniques. The toxic effect of free EEO and CS-EEO NPs was investigated in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and fibroblast normal cells. 

The optimized obtained EEO -loaded chitosan nanoparticles (CS-EEO NPs) were spherical with an average diameter of 86 nm, a polydispersity index below 0.4, and positive zeta potential (+14.25 mV) as confirmed. Increasing the concentration and pH of the chitosan solution and decreasing the chitosan/sodium tripolyphosphate ratio, the size of NPs decreased. Loading capacity (LC) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) of EEO in the NPs were about 45% and 32–76%, respectively. The chitosan nanoparticles exhibited a biphasic release profile with the release of 87% of the EEO in the first 5 h, followed by a sustained release for the next 43 h. 

The free EEO was more toxic for MDA-MB-231 cells than fibroblast cells; however, CS-EEO NPs were non-toxic for fibroblast cells and more toxic for MDA-MB-231 cells compared to free EEO. Therefore, the CS-EEO NPs illustrate smart behavior in killing cancerous cells and will be suggested for breast cancer drug delivery.

 This study aimed to investigate the effects of nanoliposomes containing crocin and nisin in milk samples as a food model. Therefore, three formulations were prepared and compared, including (1) milk samples containing free nisin and crocin, (2) samples with nanoliposomes containing nisin and crocin, and (3) nisin and crocin-loaded nanoliposomes coated with chitosan.

 In order to find the optimum amount of both bioactives within nanoliposomes, analyses of size, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency were accomplished. Then, the best formulated nanoliposome was evaluated and compared with a solution containing free bioactives and nanoliposomes coated with chitosan using other experiments, including antioxidant and antibacterial activities, viscosity, colorimetric and bacterial growth.

 The best nanoliposomal system based on the factors of size, PDI, zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency was related for the nanocarrier with 4 mg crocin, 4.5 mg nisin, and 40 mg lecithin. Based on the results obtained, both nanoliposome (a*=5.41) and chitosancoated nanoliposome (a*=5.09) solutions could significantly (P<0.05) reduce the redness of milk induced by free bioactives (a*=12.32). However, viscosity of milk in chitosan-coated nanoliposome solution was found to be higher (3.42 cP) than other formulations (viscosity of samples with free bioactives was 1.65 cP and viscosity of samples containing nanoliposome was 1.71 cP). In addition, chitosan-coated nanoliposomes could inhibit the growth of Listeria monocytogenes stronger than other samples.

 Encapsulation of nisin and crocin in nanoliposomes showed promising results for preserving food safety and quality.

Nowadays the importance of vitamins is clear for everyone. However, many patients are suffering from insufficient intake of vitamins. Incomplete intake of different vitamins from food sources due to their destruction during food processing or decrease in their bioavailability when mixing with other food materials, are factors resulting in vitamin deficiency in the body. Therefore, various lipid based nanocarriers such as nanoliposomes were developed to increase the bioavailability of bioactive compounds. Since the function of nanoliposomes containing vitamins on the body has a direct relationship with the quality of produced nanoliposomes, this review study was planned to investigate the several aspects of liposomal characteristics such as size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency on the quality of synthesized vitamin-loaded nanoliposomes.

Injection of hydrogel and cells into myocardial infarction (MI) patients is one of the emerging treatment techniques, however, it has some limitations such as a lack of electromechanical properties and neovascularization. We investigated the therapeutic potential of new electroactive hydrogel [reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Alginate (ALG)] encapsulated human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs).

The experimental study involved ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) in rat models of chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy. Echocardiograms were analyzed at 4 and 8 weeks after MI treatment. In the eighth week after injection in the heart, the rats were sacrificed. Histological and immunohistochemical analyses were performed using Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining, Masson’s trichrome staining and anti-CD31 antibody to analyze tissue structure and detect neovascularization.

In comparison to the control and other treatment groups, MSCs encapsulated in rGO-ALG showed significant improvements in fractional shortening (FS), ejection fraction (EF), wall thickness and internal diameters (P<0.05). The morphological observation showed several small blood vessels formed around the transplantation site in all treated groups especially in the MSC-ALG-rGO group 8 weeks after the transplantation. Also, Masson’s trichrome staining indicated an increased amount of collagen fibers in rGO-ALG-MSC. Microvessel density was significantly higher using MSC-ALG-rGO compared to controls (P<0.01).

This study demonstrates that intramyocardial injection of rGO/ALG, a bio-electroactive hydrogel, is safe for increasing LV function, neovascularization, and adjusting electrical characteristics following MI. The results confirm ALG promising capability as a natural therapeutic for cardiac regeneration.