Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Biomaterials Applications
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Raj, N. K. K.
Right arrow Articles by Sharma, C. P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Raj, N. K. K.
Right arrow Articles by Sharma, C. P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Oral Insulin – a Perspective

N. K. Kavitha Raj

Chandra P. Sharma

Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala – 695012, India

Diabetes mellitus is generally controlled quite well with the administration of oral medications or by the use of insulin injections. The current practice is the use of one or more doses, intermediate or long acting insulin per day. Oral insulin is a promising yet experimental method providing tight glycemic control for patients with diabetes. A biologically adhesive delivery systems offer important advantage over conventional drug delivery systems. The engineered polymer microspheres made of erodable polymer display strong adhesive interactions with gastrointestinal mucus and cellular lining can traverse both the mucosal epithelium and the follicle associated epithelium covering the lymphoidtissue of Peyer’s patches. Alginate, a natural polymer recovered from seaweed is being developed as a nanoparticle for the delivery of insulin without being destroyed in the stomach. Alginate is infact finding application in biotechnology industry as thickening agent, a gelling agent and a colloid stabilizer. Alginate has in addition, several other properties that have enabledit to be usedas a matrix for entrapment and for the delivery of a variety of proteins such as insulin andcells. These properties include: a relatively inert aqueous environment within the matrix; a mildroom temperature encapsulation process free of organic solvents; a high gel porosity which allows for high diffusion rates of macromolecules; the ability to control this porosity with simple coating procedures and dissolution and biodegradation of the system under normal physiological conditions.

Key Words: alginates nanoparticles • diabetes mellitus • encapsulated insulin • microbeads • mucoadhesion • oral insulin

Journal of Biomaterials Applications, Vol. 17, No. 3, 183-196 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0885328203017003567
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?