Degradation performance of polyglutamic acid and its application of calcium supplement

Degradable biopolymers with functional groups play a crucial role in the biomedical field. In this case, the influences of temperature and pH values on the degradation performance of poly (γ-glutamic acid) (γ-PGA) were fully explored by gel permeation chromatography. Further, γ-PGA-Ca was prepared by using calcium chloride to react with the low molecular weight γ-PGA and characterized by Fourier transform infrared, differential scanning calorimetry test, gel permeation chromatography, atomic absorption spectrophotometric, Ca²⁺ release in vivo, and cytotoxicity experiments. Furthermore, Caco-2 cell model was constructed to study the mechanism of γ-PGA-Ca intestinal absorption. Results indicated that low pH value and high temperature are the suitable conditions for the degradation of γ-PGA. It also suggested that γ-PGA-Ca can be used as calcium supplements due to its high rate of absorption.