Probiotics-loaded carrageenan microspheres for inflammatory bowel disease treatment

Nowadays, many studies have been established to develop strategies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment. However, seldom of them explored the synergistic effects of materials and probiotics in IBD treatment. Herein, we prepared probiotics-loaded dietary fiber microspheres and studied their potential in IBD therapy. The carrageenan, a typical dietary fiber, was functionalized with polymerizable groups and employed to fabricate the methylacrylylated carrageenan hydrogel microspheres (CHMSs) by microfluidics. The CHMSs loaded with probiotics exhibited good monodispersity, biocompatibility, and the best effects in relieving the symptoms of IBD and body weight recovery than other groups, indicating the probiotics and carrageenan have synergistic effect for IBD treatment. These results show the huge potential of the probiotics-loaded CHMSs for IBD therapy.