Porous PLGA microparticles formed by “one-step” emulsification for pulmonary drug delivery: The surface morphology and the aerodynamic properties

• Published in: Colloids and surfaces, B, Biointerfaces Vol. 159; pp. 318 - 326
• Main Authors: Nishimura, Shinnosuke, Takami, Taku, Murakami, Yoshihiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Cascade impactor; One-step emulsification; PLGA; Pulmonary drug delivery; Spontaneous emulsification; Spontaneous emulsification; Pulmonary drug delivery; PLGA; Cascade impactor; One-step emulsification
• ISSN: 0927-7765; 1873-4367
• DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2017.08.004

Porous PLGA microparticles formed by “one-step” emulsification showed the specific surface morphology and the unusual aerodynamic properties. [Display omitted] •The porous PLGA particles for pulmonary delivery were prepared.•The shape factor should not be determined only by the outline of particles.•The particles had specific internal structures with unusual aerodynamic performances. In the present study, by using a newly developed one-step emulsification technique, we tried to prepare porous PLGA particles having a proper diameter and surface morphology in order to achieve both a high efficient delivery of the particles to the lungs and a phagocytosis-avoidance ability. We found that our porous particles have the very low tapped density of 0.04g/cm3. Experimental and theoretical studies strongly suggest that the shape factor should not be determined only by the outline of the particles, although previous research assigned a value of 1 to the shape factor for particles regardless of the presence of pores and their distribution. We found the possibility that our porous particles both had specific internal structures induced by spontaneous emulsification and exhibited unusual aerodynamic performance.