In-vitro Degradation Behaviors of Poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide-co-ε-caprolactone) Microspheres

Abstract

Among drug delivery systems, polymer microspheres have been proved to be the most promising carriers during the past several years. In this paper we describe the preparation of poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLLGC) random terpolymer microspheres; their in-vitro degradation behaviors, including the changes of pH value, mass loss, molecular mass and surface morphology, were investigated during various degradation periods and compared with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres. The results showed that the introduction of the ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) unit reduced the degradation rate of the PLGA polymers. Therefore, we suggest the PLLGC microspheres with controllable degradation rate could supply a wider application future in drug delivery field than pure PLGA microspheres.

Keywords:

• degradation behavior
• microspheres
• poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide-co-ε-caprolactone)

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Fund of China (No. 51773057, 81701844 and 81701837) and National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of Chemical Engineering and Materials (# 2016[7]).