•A chitosan/calcium pyrophosphate nanoflowers coating collagen sponge was designed.•The sponge could promote the blood clotting and achieve hemorrhage control.•The sponge can degrade in 3 weeks thus suitable for post-operative treatment.Efficient and biodegradable hemostatic materials become increasingly important in civilian and military clinical. However, traditional hemostatic materials are difficult to achieve expected effects especially in parenchymal organs with rich vascularity. In facing these challenges, we designed a biodegradable collagen sponge reinforced with chitosan/calcium pyrophosphate nanoflowers (CPNFs-Col sponge) for rapid hemostasis. With specific performances, such as rapid water absorption ability, the positive surface rich in amino groups and high specific surface area (952.5 m2 g−1), the obtained CNPFs-Col sponge with optimized composition could activate the intrinsic pathway of coagulation cascade, induce haemocytes and platelets adherence, promote the blood clotting and achieve hemorrhage control in vitro and in vivo. In addition, the CNPFs-Col sponge can be completely biodegraded in 3 weeks, which is suitable for post-operative treatment and peritoneal adhesion prevention. It can be concluded that the CPNFs-Col sponge would become a promising candidate for clinical hemostatic applications.Download high-res image (139KB)Download full-size imageThe preparation process of chitosan nanoparticle collagen sponge and its hemostatic evaluation.

•Alginate beads (SA) demonstrated spontaneous and efficient adsorption for lysozyme.•SA has a high adsorption capacity, fast equilibrium, and good reversibility.•The adsorption can be tailored by the content of Ca2 +.•The adsorption is based on a strong electrostatic interaction with lysozyme.•It is convenient, efficient, reliable and environment-friendly to prepare and apply.In this study, polyanionic alginate gel beads crosslinked by Ca2 + and glutaraldehyde have demonstrated a strong electrostatic interaction with specific proteins. Due to the naturally abundant carboxyl groups, the prepared alginate gel beads exhibited a relatively superior integrated adsorption performance toward lysozyme, including a superior adsorption capacity of 213 mg g− 1, fast adsorption equilibrium within 12 h, good selectivity, and good reversibility. Compared with other protein adsorbents, the as-prepared adsorptive beads have the advantages of excellent adsorption performance, easy to prepare, convenient, efficient, reliable and environment-friendly to apply, which can serve as a more sustainable material in protein separation and purification.Download high-res image (314KB)Download full-size image

•A redox-responsive micelle was designed for delivery of doxorubicin and curcumin.•The polymeric micelle was assembled by a double emulsion evaporation method.•The micelle exhibited a character of Glycyrrhetinic/pH-mediated endocytosis.•Synergistic chemotherapeutic efficacy was evaluated in HepG2 and HUVEC cell lines.A glycyrrhetinic acid-modified chitosan-cystamine-poly(ε-caprolactone) copolymer (PCL-SS-CTS-GA) micelle was developed for the co-delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) and curcumin (CCM) to hepatoma cells. Glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) was used as a targeting unit to ensure specific delivery. Co-encapsulation of DOX and CCM was facilitated by the incorporation of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) groups. The highest drug loading content was 19.8% and 8.9% (w/w) for DOX and CCM, respectively. The PCL-SS-CTS-GA micelle presented a spherical or ellipsoidal geometry with a mean diameter of approximately 110 nm. The surface charge of the micelle changed from negative to positive, when the pH value of the solution decreased from 7.4 to 6.8. Meanwhile, it also exhibited a character of redox-responsive drug release and GA/pH-mediated endocytosis in vitro. In simulated body fluid with 10 mM glutathione, the release rate in 12 h was 80.6% and 67.2% for DOX and CCM, respectively. The cell uptake of micelles was significantly higher at pH 6.8 than pH 7.4. The combined administration of DOX and CCM was facilitated by PCL-SS-CTS-GA micelle. Results showed that there was strong synergic effect between the two drugs. The PCL-SS-CTS-GA micelle might turn into a promising and effective carrier for improved combination chemotherapy.The self-assembly process of polymeric micelle and drug release mechanism in tumor

•This work provides a new method to improve the external gelation technique.•Adding ethanol improved the visual appearance of alginate films.•Adding ethanol could reduce the surface roughness of alginate films.•Adding ethanol improved the mechanical properties of alginate films.•Extent of crosslinking depended on ethanol content.Alginate films were prepared by solution casting method and further ionically crosslinked in a calcium chloride (CaCl2) water solution containing different proportions (0–40% v/v) of ethanol as the co-solvent. The addition of ethanol into the CaCl2 water solution was found to improve the visual appearance, thickness, surface homogeneity, and mechanical properties of the films, which can be attributed to the reduced swelling degree of films during crosslinking process. Furthermore, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis indicated that the incorporation of ethanol into the crosslinking solution did not detract from the uniformity of crosslinking throughout the film matrix. However, the swelling degree and calcium content determination indicated that the Ca2+ crosslinking degree decreased when the ethanol proportion exceeded 30% v/v. Consequently, this study introduces a green, efficient, and simple technique for the preparation of calcium alginate films with excellent surface appearance and mechanical properties for pharmaceutical products.