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Synthesis and characterization of star-shaped poly (lactide-co-glycolide) and its drug-loaded microspheres

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Abstract

The star-shaped poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) was synthesized via the ring-opening polymerization of d,l-lactide and glycolide, with pentaerythritol as a multifunctional initiator and stannous 2-ethyl hexanoate as a catalyst. The structures of these polymers were characterized by 13C-NMR spectroscopy, while the molecular weight and polydispersity index (PDI) were determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The glass transition temperature (T g) of copolymer was determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Bovine serum albumin (BSA) loaded microspheres were fabricated using star-shaped PLGA by a W/O/W double emulsion solvent evaporation method. The results of characterization demonstrated that the particle size of the PLGA microspheres were about 80–150 μm, the maximum loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency of BSA-loaded microspheres were 67.51 μg/(mg microspheres) and 78.39%, respectively, which were better than linear PLGA. The in vitro release profiles of BSA in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) lasted for 37 h. Drug release profiles can be affected by polymer molecular weight and the ratio of polymer to drug. The maximum release percentage was 80%.

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Acknowledgment

We are grateful the financial support of Tianjin Science and Technology Key grants (05YFGPGX26200) and the NSFC of China grants 50873114.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Ministry of Education, and Institute of Polymer Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Chunping Ouyang, Qian Liu, Shunxin Zhao & Zhengpu Zhang

  2. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, 300192, China

    Guilei Ma & Cunxian Song

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  1. Chunping Ouyang
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  2. Qian Liu
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  3. Shunxin Zhao
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  4. Guilei Ma
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  5. Zhengpu Zhang
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  6. Cunxian Song
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Correspondence to Zhengpu Zhang or Cunxian Song.

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Ouyang, C., Liu, Q., Zhao, S. et al. Synthesis and characterization of star-shaped poly (lactide-co-glycolide) and its drug-loaded microspheres. Polym. Bull. 68, 27–36 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-011-0516-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-011-0516-x

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