Investigation of the behaviour of chitosan microparticles as pH responsive hydrogels in the gastro-intestinal tract using magnetic resonance imaging

The objective of this research was to determine whether chitosan microparticles could be developed as potential satiety enhancing ingredients by investigating their swelling behaviour in the gastro-intestinal tract using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Previous work undertaken using a covalently cross-linked composite of chitosan and bovine serum albumin (BSA) showed this system swells in gastric conditions in vitro (Butler, Clark, & Adams, 2006). This paper describes the preparation and characterisation of chitosan/BSA microparticles cross-linked using 25 mM and 100 mM glutaraldehyde (GDA). 1.5% chitosan/15% BSA microparticles cross-linked with 25 mM GDA swell by 100% in simulated gastric conditions. We found an experimental correlation between the transverse NMR relaxation time, T2, and swelling of the microparticles in vitro. Our study of four volunteers showed swelling of these microparticles in the human stomach, observed from increases in T2 of the microparticles using non-invasive MRI. As such, our initial results, with 4 volunteers, suggest that this system could be used as a potential satiety enhancing agent in vivo as we would expect it to provide gastric distension due to swelling at low pH. Further studies with more volunteers would be necessary to confirm our initial findings.