Gomes Francisca L, Conceição Francisco, Teixeira Liliana Moreira, Leijten Jeroen, Jonkheijm Pascal
Laboratory of Biointerface Chemistry, Department of Molecules and Materials, Faculty of Science and Technology, Technical Medical Centre and MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, 7522NB Enschede, The Netherlands.
Leijten Laboratory, Department of BioEngineering Technologies, Faculty of Science and Technology, Technical Medical Centre, University of Twente, 7522NB Enschede, The Netherlands.
Pharmaceutics. 2025 Jan 6;17(1):64. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics17010064.
Hydrophobic microparticles are one of the most versatile structures in drug delivery and tissue engineering. These constructs offer a protective environment for hydrophobic or water-sensitive compounds (e.g., drugs, peroxides), providing an optimal solution for numerous biomedical purposes, such as drug delivery or oxygen therapeutics. The intravascular administration of hydrophobic microparticles requires a safe-to-flow particle profile, which typically corresponds to a maximum size of 5 µm-the generally accepted diameter for the thinnest blood vessels in humans. However, the production of hydrophobic microparticles below this size range remains largely unexplored. In this work, we investigate the fabrication of hydrophobic microparticles at safe-to-inject and safe-to-flow sizes (<5 µm) for intravascular administration. Polycaprolactone microparticles (PCL MPs) are produced using a double-emulsification method with tip ultrasonication, for which various production parameters (PCL molecular weight, PCL concentration, type of stabilizer, and filtration) are optimized to obtain particles at sizes below 5 µm. We achieve a PCL MP size distribution of 99.8% below this size limit, and prove that these particles can flow without obstruction through a microfluidic model emulating a thin human blood capillary (4.1 µm × 3.0 µm width × heigh). Overall, we demonstrate that hydrophobic microparticles can be fabricated at safe-to-flow sizes using a simple and scalable setup, paving the way towards their applicability as new intravascular injectables.
疏水微粒是药物递送和组织工程中用途最为广泛的结构之一。这些构建体为疏水性或水敏性化合物(如药物、过氧化物)提供了一个保护环境,为众多生物医学目的(如药物递送或氧疗)提供了最佳解决方案。疏水微粒的血管内给药需要安全流动的颗粒外形,这通常对应于最大尺寸为5 µm——这是人类最细血管普遍接受的直径。然而,尺寸低于此范围的疏水微粒的生产在很大程度上仍未得到探索。在这项工作中,我们研究了用于血管内给药的安全注射和安全流动尺寸(<5 µm)的疏水微粒的制备。聚己内酯微粒(PCL MPs)采用带有尖端超声处理的双乳化法制备,对各种生产参数(PCL分子量、PCL浓度、稳定剂类型和过滤)进行了优化,以获得尺寸低于5 µm的微粒。我们实现了99.8%的PCL MPs尺寸分布低于此尺寸限制,并证明这些微粒可以在模拟人类细毛细血管(宽4.1 µm×高3.0 µm)的微流体模型中无阻流动。总体而言,我们证明了使用简单且可扩展的装置可以制备出安全流动尺寸的疏水微粒,为其作为新型血管内注射剂的应用铺平了道路。