H3PO4. For the same reason, the pectin solution was cross-linked by adding 0.8% w/v solution of Ca(OH)2 drop wise in

acidic condition (pH∼4). In this study the composition of pectin and Ca2+ ions at pH 4 was kept 0.4% and 0.8% w/v, respectively, as optimized by us earlier [38]. The total volume of the reaction mixture (15.25 mL) comprising pectin, Ca(OH)2 solution, freshly prepared MNPs and aqueous solution GSK1349572 of oxaliplatin was stirred for 6 h at room temperature to allow the formation of calcium pectinate nanocarriers with MNPs and OHP encapsulated. This batch of sample will be referred here as MP-OHP nanocarriers, which were magnetically separated from the nanostructures of calcium pectinate without MNP encapsulation. The MP-OHP nanocarriers were purified by washing several RG7204 in vivo times in phosphate buffer solution for removing loosely adhered drug and MNPs on the surface of the nanostructures. It may be remarked that negligible amount of MNPs might remain on the surface of calcium pectinate nanostructures as demonstrated by us earlier by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy [38]. The MP-OHP nanocarriers were lyophilized for further studies. Similarly, a batch of calcium pectinate nanostructures were synthesized where MNPs were encapsulated along with oxaliplatin, and this batch of sample will be referred to as MP. The as-fabricated MP-OHP

dispersion comprised of free dissolved drug (y) and drug loaded in MP-OHP nanocarriers (x). If the initial amount of the drug taken is w, then the drug Selleckchem ZD1839 loaded in MP-OHP nanocarriers is calculated as x=w−y. The concentration of free dissolved drug in the dispersion was determined by the bulk equilibrium reverse dialysis method [27]. The concentration of the drug was measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). The drug loading content, i.e., the amount of loaded drug per weight of the MP-OHP nanocarrier (in wt%) was calculated as (x/t)×100, where t=weight of the fabricated MP-OHP. The % encapsulation efficiency of the drug in the nanocarrier is given as (x/w)×100. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements of the fabricated MP-OHP and

MNPs were performed with a powder diffractometer (Bruker AXS D8 Advance) using graphite monochromatized CuKα radiation source. The morphology of the fabricated MP-OHP batch was studied by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) operated at 200 kV FEI Technai-G2 microscope and by the field emission scanning electron microscopy (beam resolution of 2 nm) with energy dispersive x-ray analyzer (FESEM-EDAX, FEI-Quanta 200 F) operated at 20 kV. The sample for TEM studies was prepared by dropping a diluted dispersion of MP-OHP nanocarriers on a carbon coated 150 mesh copper grid and dried at room temperature. Similarly for SEM studies, the diluted dispersion of MP-OHP was sprayed on a clean glass plate, dried in air and then coated with ultra-thin layer of Au.