Hemocompatibility of Albumin Nanoparticles as a Drug Delivery System—An <i>in Vitro</i> Study

Abstract

As a major plasma protein, albumin has a distinct advantage compared with other materials for nanoparticle preparation. It is cheap and easily available. The present work aimed to prepare bovine albumin nanoparticles (BAN) with a simple coacervation method and to test their hemocompatibility. The albumin nanoparticles obtained by this method had a range of sizes from 250 - 350 nm at pH = 7.4. In vitro hemocompatibility tests of the prepared (BAN) were conducted after the incubation of BAN with normal blood for 2 h at 37&degC. Hemocompatibility tests showed that the reduction in the hemolysis percentage of erythrocytes was due to exposure to BAN. The other blood parameters such as hemoglobin (HG), mean corpuscle hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscle hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were in the normal range. The prothrombin time (PT) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) decreased as the concentration of BAN increased. The results obtained in this study demonstrated that BAN could be used safely and without abnormal effect when interacted with blood through many biomedical applications.