Dermatan sulfate/chitosan polyelectrolyte complex with potentialapplication in the treatment and diagnosis of vascular disease

RASENTE RITA Y; GUALCO LUCIANA; IMPERIALE JULIETA; LAZZARO-MARTINEZ JM; CALABRESE GRACIELA C.; OBERKERSCH ROXANA; SOSNIK ALEJANDRO

CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 144 p. 362 - 370

0144-8617

tCardiovascular disease is the largest single cause of morbid-mortality in the world. However, there is stillno pharmaceutical treatment that directly targets the blood vessel wall instead of just controlling the riskfactors. Here, we produced polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) by a simple and reproducible polyelectrolytecomplexation method between low molecular mass dermatan sulfate (polyanionic polysaccharide)and chitosan (polycationic polysaccharide), and evaluated the cellular uptake by vascular endothelialcells. The composition and the composition homogeneity of PECs were confirmed by13C-CP-MAS spec-troscopy and by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, respectively. The hydrodynamic radius, determinedby dynamic light scattering, was 729 ± 11 nm. PECs were not cytotoxic for a murine heart endothelium-derived cell line. Fluorescent confocal microscopy showed the specific uptake of fluorescently-labeledPECs by endothelial cells when they were cultured alone or in the presence of macrophages. Overall,these findings confirmed the potential of these PECs for targeting different agents to the vessel wall inthe prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of vascular disease