Factors influencing safety and efficacy of intravenous iron-carbohydrate nanomedicines: From production to clinical practice.

Iron deficiency is an important subclinical disease affecting over one billion people worldwide. A growing body of clinical records supports the use of intravenous iron-carbohydrate complexes for patients where iron replenishment is necessary and oral iron supplements are either ineffective or cannot be tolerated by the gastrointestinal tract. A critical characteristic of iron-carbohydrate drugs is the complexity of their core-shell structure, which has led to differences in the efficacy and safety of various iron formulations.

Physical Structuring of Injectable Polymeric Systems to Controllably Deliver Nanosized Extracellular Vesicles.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as a promising alternative approach to cell-therapies. However, to realize the potential of these nanoparticles as new regenerative tools, healthcare materials that address the current limitations of systemic administration need to be developed. Here, two technologies for controlling the structure of alginate based microgel suspensions are used to develop sustained local release of EVs, in vitro.

Encapsulation and Fluidization Maintains the Viability and Glucose Sensitivity of Beta-Cells.

This study presents experimental data of a fluidized-bed bioreactor for the cultivation of encapsulated pancreatic beta-cells. The fluidization quality for the bioreactor was evaluated at different flow rate using bed-expansion parameters. Homogeneous distribution of microcapsules was achieved at a flow rate of 2000 μL/min.

Calcium pre-conditioning substitution enhances viability and glucose sensitivity of pancreatic beta-cells encapsulated using polyelectrolyte multilayer coating method.

Type I diabetics are dependent on daily insulin injections. A therapy capable of immunoisolating pancreatic beta-cells and providing normoglycaemia is an alternative since it would avoid the late complications associated with insulin use. Here, 3D-concave agarose micro-wells were used to culture robust pancreatic MIN-6 cell spheroids within 24 hours that were shown to exhibit cell-cell contact and uniform size (201 ± 2 μm).