Study on facile designing, swelling properties and structural relationship of gelatin nanoparticles

In the present work glutaraldehyde crosslinked gelatin (Type-A and Type-B) nanoparticles were fabricated following a microemulsion crosslinking technique. The structural, morphological, and stability features of nanoparticles were investigated using the techniques like FTIR, TEM, XRD, DLS, and surface charge measurements. The spectral peaks appeared in the FTIR spectra of gelatin nanoparticles confirmed the crosslinking of gelatin molecules with glutaraldehyde. The SEM analysis of the nanoparticles suggested that the size of gelatin nanoparticles was nearly 300 nm whereas the TEM analysis revealed their size around 200 nm. The size of nanoparticles was found to increase with increasing amounts of gelatin while it showed a decrease when the concentration of crosslinker was increased. An increase in percent crystallinity was observed when gelatin was crosslinked with glutaraldehyde. The water uptake capacity of the gelatin nanoparticles was evaluated under varying experimental conditions like, pH, temperature, presence of simulated physiological fluids and varying composition of the gelatin nanoparticles. To study the cytotoxic behavior of gelatin nanoparticles in vitro cytotoxicity analysis were performed. The gelatin nanoparticles demonstrated good stability and biocompatibility which suggested that these particles can be used as drug carrier in fabricating a swelling controlled drug delivery system.