Biodegradable microparticles and fiber fabrics for sustained delivery of cisplatin to treat C6 glioma in vitro

The duration of cisplatin release from most of the drug delivery devices seemed to be shorter than 14 days except large microparticles. The objective of this study was to fabricate and characterize cisplatin-loaded PLA microparticles, PLA/PLGA (30/70) composite microparticles, and fibers as formulations for long-term sustained delivery of cisplatin to treat C6 glioma in vitro by electrospray and electrospinning techniques. Cisplatin-loaded biodegradable microparticles with particle size of around 5 mu m and fiber fabrics with diameter of 0.5-1.7 mu m were obtained using electrospray and electrospinning techniques. Encapsulation efficiency and in vitro release of formulations were measured by ICP-OES. The encapsulation efficiency for different samples of microparticles was approximately from 33% to 72% and the fiber fabrics had encapsulation efficiency greater than 90%. Cisplatin-loaded microparticles showed typical characteristics of cisplatin release profile: a large initial burst followed by a sustained slow release of 35 days. The composite PLA/PLGA (30/70) microparticles could reduce the initial burst release of cisplatin because of their core-shell structures. In contrast, more than 75 days sustained release could be achieved by fiber fabric formulations without large initial burst. MTT assay was used to quantify the cytotoxicity of different formulations against C6 glioma cells. Microparticle formulations had slightly higher cytotoxicity than free drug. In contrast, the cytotoxicity of fiber fabrics formulation was around 4 times higher than of the free drug based on the actual amount of drug released. The microparticle and fiber fabric formulations presented may be promising for the sustained delivery of cisplatin to eliminate the undesired side effects caused by direct injection of cisplatin solution in systemic administration. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.