Polymer-Dependent Morphology Development of Biodegradable Porous Microspheres with Amphiphilic PEG-PDLLA Incorporation
- 1R&D Center, VAIM Co., Ltd., 30, Techno 1-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34016, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Biodegradable porous microspheres hold considerable promise as regenerative fillers, injectable biomaterials, tissue-engineering scaffolds, and drug-delivery carriers; however, how polymer properties and amphiphilic modification jointly influence pore formation remains insufficiently understood. In this study, porous microspheres composed of poly(D,L-lactide) (PDLLA), poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), and amphiphilic PEG-PDLLA were fabricated by a porogen-assisted solvent evaporation method, with PEG-PDLLA incorporated as an amphiphilic morphology-modifying polymer component. The relationships among polymer type and molecular weight, particle size, porogen incorporation, PEG-PDLLA incorporation, and microsphere morphology were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy, tapped-density porosity analysis, laser diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis, micro-computed tomography (Micro-CT), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). PDLLA exhibited the highest corrected density-derived porosity index (42.4%), followed by PLLA (30.9%) and PCL (13.6%). Smaller PDLLA microspheres showed higher corrected density-derived porosity, reaching 50.5% at a median particle diameter (D50) of 28.7 μm. PEG-PDLLA incorporation was associated with the formation of surface-open pores and heterogeneous internal architectures as well as increased nitrogen-accessible BET surface area and pore volume, with response exhibited in a polymer-dependent manner. Micro-CT showed differences in internal density distribution and architecture between PLLA and PLLA/PEG-PDLLA microspheres, while DSC revealed polymer-dependent thermal characteristics without fundamentally altering the characteristic thermal transitions of the host polymers. Overall, porous microsphere formation was associated with polymer physicochemical properties, PEG-PDLLA-associated amphiphilic morphology modification, molecular weight, particle size, porogen incorporation, and emulsion/solidification behavior. These findings provide a comparative framework for investigating formulation strategies for biodegradable porous microspheres with tunable architecture and surface accessibility for regenerative medicine and controlled drug-delivery applications.
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BibTeX
@article{cho2026polymerdependent,
title = {{Polymer-Dependent Morphology Development of Biodegradable Porous Microspheres with Amphiphilic PEG-PDLLA Incorporation}},
author = {Jin Cheol Cho and Sun Woo Jung and Gunpoong Kim},
journal = {Polymers},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/polym18192415},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/18/19/2415},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Polymer-Dependent Morphology Development of Biodegradable Porous Microspheres with Amphiphilic PEG-PDLLA Incorporation
AU - Jin Cheol Cho
AU - Sun Woo Jung
AU - Gunpoong Kim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
JO - Polymers
DO - 10.3390/polym18192415
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/18/19/2415
AB - Biodegradable porous microspheres hold considerable promise as regenerative fillers, injectable biomaterials, tissue-engineering scaffolds, and drug-delivery carriers; however, how polymer properties and amphiphilic modification jointly influence pore formation remains insufficiently understood. In this study, porous microspheres composed of poly(D,L-lactide) (PDLLA), poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), and amphiphilic PEG-PDLLA were fabricated by a porogen-assisted solvent evaporation method, with PEG-PDLLA incorporated as an amphiphilic morphology-modifying polymer component. The relationships among polymer type and molecular weight, particle size, porogen incorporation, PEG-PDLLA incorporation, and microsphere morphology were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy, tapped-density porosity analysis, laser diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis, micro-computed tomography (Micro-CT), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). PDLLA exhibited the highest corrected density-derived porosity index (42.4%), followed by PLLA (30.9%) and PCL (13.6%). Smaller PDLLA microspheres showed higher corrected density-derived porosity, reaching 50.5% at a median particle diameter (D50) of 28.7 μm. PEG-PDLLA incorporation was associated with the formation of surface-open pores and heterogeneous internal architectures as well as increased nitrogen-accessible BET surface area and pore volume, with response exhibited in a polymer-dependent manner. Micro-CT showed differences in internal density distribution and architecture between PLLA and PLLA/PEG-PDLLA microspheres, while DSC revealed polymer-dependent thermal characteristics without fundamentally altering the characteristic thermal transitions of the host polymers. Overall, porous microsphere formation was associated with polymer physicochemical properties, PEG-PDLLA-associated amphiphilic morphology modification, molecular weight, particle size, porogen incorporation, and emulsion/solidification behavior. These findings provide a comparative framework for investigating formulation strategies for biodegradable porous microspheres with tunable architecture and surface accessibility for regenerative medicine and controlled drug-delivery applications.
SN - 2073-4360
ER -