A water-soluble capsule comprising a water-soluble film and at least one internal compartment enclosed by the water-soluble film, the compartment having an internal space and containing a home care composition within the internal space, where film comprises a comprises a polysaccharide having: (i) an average molecular weight in the range 100K-1000K g/mol; (ii) one or more functional groups comprising one or more of a sulfate, sulfonate or a carboxylate group or any combination thereof; and wherein branching side chains comprising four or more units are present at a maximum of one side chain for every four units of the backbone; and wherein the film thickness is from 40 to 200 micrometres (microns).

A hydrogel composition includes 0.1 to 10 wt % of a cross-linking agent, 0.2 to 6 wt % of a gelling polymer, 0.5 to 20 wt % of a polyhydric alcohol, and 70 to 90 wt % of purified water to maintain a form without a supporter, be stable without fluidization even when a hydrogel is immersed in cosmetics or pharmaceuticals, and allow the cosmetics or the pharmaceuticals to be uniformly delivered to skin.

The invention relates to the preparation and the use of ?,?-unsaturated aldehydes in the structure of sulfated polysaccharides. It concerns the derivatives with a conjugated double bond in the 4th and 5th positions of the galactopyranose part situated in the 6th position with respect to the aldehyde, according to the general structural formula (I) or its hydrated form according to the general structural formula (II). The preparation of these derivatives derives from sulfated polysaccharides containing a galactopyranose ring sulfated in the 4th position that is bound in the polymer chain via ?(1.fwdarw.3) or ?(1.fwdarw.3) O-glycosidic bond. In the described solution, the sulfated polysaccharides undergo a regio- and chemoselective oxidation to form C6-saturated aldehyde, which, via a direct elimination of the sulfate group, provides the ?,?-unsaturated derivative according to the general formula (I) or (II). The described solution is technically advantageous, because it leads directly to ?,?-unsaturated aldehydes, without any elimination agents, higher temperature, or isolation of intermediates during the synthesis. The conjugation in the structure of ?,?-unsaturated aldehyde allows, under physiological conditions, to bind a wide variety of biocompatible amines in the structure of the sulfated polysaccharides. The proposed method allows to prepare materials suitable for pH-responsive drug delivery systems, or for the preparation of scaffolds in tissue engineering or regenerative medicine. Formulae for the abstract (I), (II) above, where R is OH, OSO.sub.2OH, OSO.sub.2ONa, or NHAc.

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Poly alpha-1,3-glucan ester compounds are disclosed herein with a degree of substitution of about 0.05 to about 3.0. Also disclosed are methods of producing poly alpha-1,3-glucan ester compounds and films made therefrom.

The present invention includes a hydrogel and a method of making a porous hydrogel by preparing an aqueous mixture of an uncrosslinked polymer and a crystallizable molecule; casting the mixture into a vessel; allowing the cast mixture to dry to form an amorphous hydrogel film; seeding the cast mixture with a seed crystal of the crystallizable molecule; growing the crystallizable molecule into a crystal structure within the uncrosslinked polymer; crosslinking the polymer around the crystal structure under conditions in which the crystal structure within the crosslinked polymer is maintained; and dissolving the crystals within the crosslinked polymer to form the porous hydrogel.

Embodiments herein described provide devices for identifying and collecting rare cells or cells which occur at low frequency in the body of a subject, such as, antigen-specific cells or disease-specific cells. More specifically, the devices are useful for trapping immune cells and the devices contain a physiologically-compatible porous polymer scaffold, a plurality of antigens, and an immune cell-recruiting agent, wherein the plurality of antigens and the immune cell recruiting agent attract and trap the immune cell in the device. Also provided are pharmaceutical compositions, kits, and packages containing such devices. Additional embodiments relate to methods for making the devices, compositions, and kits/packages. Further embodiments relate to methods for using the devices, compositions, and/or kits in the diagnosis or therapy of diseases such as autoimmune diseases or cancers.

Embodiments of the present technology include a formaldehyde-free binder composition. The composition may include melamine. The composition may also include a reducing sugar. In addition, the binder composition may include a non-carbohydrate aldehyde or ketone. Embodiments may also include a method of making a formaldehyde-free binder composition. The method may include dissolving melamine in an aqueous solution of a reducing sugar. The concentration of the reducing sugar may be 30 wt. % to 70 wt. % of the aqueous solution, which may be at a temperature of 50 C. to 100 C. The method may also include adding a non-carbohydrate aldehyde or ketone to the dissolved melamine in the aqueous solution to form a binder solution. The temperature of the aqueous solution of the dissolved melamine may be 50 C. to 100 C. during the addition of the non-carbohydrate aldehyde or ketone. The method may further include reducing the temperature of the binder solution.

The present invention includes a hydrogel and a method of making a porous hydrogel by preparing an aqueous mixture of an uncrosslinked polymer and a crystallizable molecule; casting the mixture into a vessel; allowing the cast mixture to dry to form an amorphous hydrogel film; seeding the cast mixture with a seed crystal of the crystallizable molecule; growing the crystallizable molecule into a crystal structure within the uncrosslinked polymer; crosslinking the polymer around the crystal structure under conditions in which the crystal structure within the crosslinked polymer is maintained; and dissolving the crystals within the crosslinked polymer to form the porous hydrogel.

Provided herein are compositions comprising succinoglycan biopolymers lacking succinyl moieties, wherein the biopolymers are heat stable or heat activated, and methods of preparing and using such biopolymers.

The present invention relates to a gel composition comprising a glucan and a gelling agent, said composition having a melting point (gel to sol) above 37 C., as well as to the uses of this composition in therapy, in particular in wound healing.