Microbial Exopolysaccharides Based Drug Delivery Systems

Abstract

Microbial exopolysaccharides (EPSs), one of the main groups of microbially produced biopolymers, have long been accepted as significantly important biomaterials in industrial areas. Therefore there is an increased interest in microbial EPSs that show great diversity and functions with unique and commercially relevant material properties. These biodegradable, biocompatible, both human and environmental friendly polysaccharides have many uses as drug delivery vehicles, controlled drug carriers or scaffolds for tissue engineering, implantable biomaterials, etc. In this review, after a brief description of main principles and routes of drug delivery and microbial exopolysaccaharides, the microbial EPSs xanthan, dextran, levan, gellan, and curdlan are discussed in more detail with a special focus on their uses indrug delivery systems