327 research outputs found
Professionalism, Golf Coaching and a Master of Science Degree: A commentary
As a point of reference I congratulate Simon Jenkins on tackling the issue of professionalism in coaching. As he points out coaching is not a profession, but this does not mean that coaching would not benefit from going through a professionalization process. As things stand I find that the stimulus article unpacks some critically important issues of professionalism, broadly within the context of golf coaching. However, I am not sure enough is made of understanding what professional (golf) coaching actually is nor how the development of a professional golf coach can be facilitated by a Master of Science Degree (M.Sc.). I will focus my commentary on these two issues
A novel enzymatically-mediated drug delivery carrier for bone tissue engineering applications: combining biodegradable starch-based microparticles and differentiation agents
In many biomedical applications, the performance
of biomaterials depends largely on their degradation
behavior. For instance, in drug delivery applications, the
polymeric carrier should degrade under physiological
conditions slowly releasing the encapsulated drug. The aim
of this work was, therefore, to develop an enzymaticmediated
degradation carrier system for the delivery of
differentiation agents to be used in bone tissue engineering
applications. For that, a polymeric blend of starch with
polycaprolactone (SPCL) was used to produce a microparticle
carrier for the controlled release of dexamethasone
(DEX). In order to investigate the effect of enzymes on the
degradation behavior of the developed system and release
profile of the encapsulated osteogenic agent (DEX), the
microparticles were incubated in phosphate buffer solution
in the presence of a-amylase and/or lipase enzymes (at
physiological concentrations), at 37 C for different periods
of time. The degradation was followed by gravimetric
measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and
Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the
release of DEX was monitored by high performance liquid
chromatography (HPLC). The developed microparticles
were shown to be susceptible to enzymatic degradation, as observed by an increase in weight loss and porosity with
degradation time when compared with control samples
(incubation in buffer only). For longer degradation times,
the diameter of the microparticles decreased significantly
and a highly porous matrix was obtained. The in vitro
release studies showed a sustained release pattern with
48% of the encapsulated drug being released for a period of
30 days. As the degradation proceeds, it is expected that
the remaining encapsulated drug will be completely
released as a consequence of an increasingly permeable
matrix and faster diffusion of the drug. Cytocompatibility
results indicated the possibility of the developed microparticles
to be used as biomaterial due to their reduced
cytotoxic effects
Preparation and characterization of starch-poly-epsilon-caprolactone microparticles incorporating bioactive agents for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications
One limitation associated with the delivery of bioactive agents concerns the short half-life of these molecules when administered intravenously,
which results in their loss from the desired site. Incorporation of bioactive agents into depot vehicles provides a means to
increase their persistence at the disease site. Major issues are involved in the development of a proper carrier system able to deliver
the correct drug, at the desired dose, place and time. In this work, starch-poly-e-caprolactone (SPCL) microparticles were developed
for use in drug delivery and tissue engineering (TE) applications. SPCL microparticles were prepared by using an emulsion solvent
extraction/evaporation technique, which was demonstrated to be a successful procedure to obtain particles with a spherical shape (particle
size between 5 and 900 lm) and exhibiting different surface morphologies. Their chemical structure was confirmed by Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy. To evaluate the potential of the developed microparticles as a drug delivery system, dexamethasone (DEX)
was used as model drug. DEX, a well-known component of osteogenic differentiation media, was entrapped into SPCL microparticles at
different percentages up to 93%. The encapsulation efficiency was found to be dependent on the polymer concentration and drug-to-polymer
ratio. The initial DEX release seems to be governed mainly by diffusion, and it is expected that the remaining DEX will be released
when the polymeric matrix starts to degrade. In this work it was demonstrated that SPCL microparticles containing DEX can be successfully
prepared and that these microparticular systems seem to be quite promising for controlled release applications, namely as carriers
of important differentiation agents in TE.E.R.B. thanks the Marie Curie Host Fellowships for Early Stage Research Training (EST) "Alea Jacta EST" (MEST-CT-2004-008104) for providing her with a PhD Fellowship. This work was partially supported by the European NoE EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283)
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