Citation:
Abstract:
Owing to their biocompatibility and reduced side effects, natural polymers represent an attractive choice for producing drug delivery systems. Despite few successful examples, however, the production of monodisperse biopolymer-based particles is often hindered by high viscosity of polymer fluids. In this work, we present a microfluidic approach for production of alginate-based particles carrying encapsulated antibodies. We use a triple-flow micro-device to induce hydrogel formation inside droplets before their collection off-chip. The fast mixing and gelation process produced alginate particles with a unique biconcave shape and dimensions of the mammalian cells. We show slow and fast dissolution of particles in different buffers and evaluate antibody release over time.