Journal article
Advanced subcompartmentalized microreactors: Polymer hydrogel carriers encapsulating polymer capsules and liposomes
L Hosta-Rigau, O Shimoni, B Städler, F Caruso
Small | Published : 2013
Abstract
The design of compartmentalized carriers for advanced drug delivery systems or artificial cells and organelles is of interest for biomedical applications. Herein, a polymer carrier microreactor that contains two different classes of subcompartments, multilayered polymer capsules and liposomes, is presented. 50 nm-diameter liposomes and 300 nm-diameter polymer capsules are encapsulated into a larger polymer carrier capsule, demonstrating control over the spatial positioning of the subcompartments, which are either 'membrane-associated' or 'free-floating' in the aqueous interior. Selective and spatially dependent degradation of the 300 nm-diameter subcompartments (without destroying the struct..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under the Australian Laureate Fellowship (F.C.) and Discovery Project (F.C.) schemes. We thank Dr. Almar Postma (CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies) for the synthesis of PMA<INF>c</INF> and PVP<INF>c</INF>, Christopher J. Ochs (The University of Melbourne) for his assistance with the TEM images, and Rona Chandrawati (The University of Melbourne) for her advice with the beta-lactamase reaction.