Phagocytosis of spherical and ellipsoidal micronetwork colloids from crosslinked poly(ε-caprolactone)

Publication date: Available online 24 June 2019Source: International Journal of PharmaceuticsAuthor(s): Fabian Friess, Toralf Roch, Barbara Seifert, Andreas Lendlein, Christian WischkeAbstractThe effect of non-spherical particle shapes on cellular uptake has been reported as a general design parameter to control cellular recognition of particulate drug carriers. Beside shape, also size and cell-particle ratio should mutually effect phagocytosis. Here, the capability to control cellular uptake of poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) based polymer micronetwork colloids (MNC), a carrier system that can be transferred to various shapes, is explored in vitro at test conditions allowing multiple cell-particle contacts. PCL-based MNC were synthesized as spheres with a diameter of ∼6 and ∼10 µm, loaded with a fluorescent dye by a specific technique of swelling, re-dispersion and drying, and transferred into different ellipsoidal shapes by a phantom stretching method. The boundaries of MNC deformability to prolate ellipsoid target shapes were systematically analyzed and found to be at an aspect ratio of ∼ 4 as obtained by a phantom elongation of ∼150%. Uptake studies with a murine macrophages cell line showed shape dependency of phagocytosis for selected conditions when varying particle sizes and shapes, cell-particle ratios (1:1, 1:2, 1:10, 1:50), and time points (1-24 h). For larger-sized MNC, there was no significant shape effect on phagocytosis as these particles may associat...
Source: International Journal of Pharmaceutics - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research