| 초록 |
Nanoparticles have been extensively investigated in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutics. Due to the small sized character and long plasma retention time, many research groups have been tried to utilize the nanoparticles for injectable drug carriers and imiging agents. Among the numerous synthetic and natural polymers, chitosan, a natural amino polysaccharide, has been widely employd as a drug delivery system and gene delivery system owing to its biocompatibility and low toxicity, etc. In this study, 1-3 KD and 3-5 KD of low molecular weight oligo-chitosans were chemically modified by hydrophobic groups of cholesterol. The particle size, morphology, critical aggregation concentration (cac) of the chitosan nanoparticles were investigated by using dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscope (AFM), and fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively. The chitosan-cholesterol conjugates foam small-sized particles around 200nm. The cacs of CSNCs were dependent on contents of cholesterol. As increase hydrophobicity, the cac values decreses. |
