Biodegradation rate of embolized protein microspheres in lung, liver and kidney of rats

The targeting and sustained release characteristics of cytotoxic drug-loaded protein microspheres may prove useful in the therapeutic chemoembolization of solid tumours. Because biodegradation rate of embolized particles will influence rate of incorporated drug release and duration of exposure, this parameter was studied for microspheres (10-30 microns mean diam.) prepared from the proteins albumin and casein, that we have previously used as carriers for doxorubicin. As a measure of microsphere loss in-vivo the radionuclide 125I was chosen because it can be covalently bound to proteins and also homogeneously distributed throughout the matrix. Radiolabelled microspheres were administered to rats both intravenously (lung as target organ, 1.4-2.2 mg/100 g) and via the hepatic artery (liver as target organ, 0.4-0.8 mg/100 g). In both cases it was observed that the casein system biodegraded more slowly than the albumin in-vivo. Thus, time taken for loss of 50% of embolized microspheres from lung was: albumin 2.0 days; casein 3.5 days and from liver:albumin 3.6 days; casein 6.8 days. Microsphere "debris" did not markedly accumulate in other organs. In-vitro experiments showed that microspheres were stable in serum and that albumin microspheres were not innately more sensitive to enzymic digestion than casein. The results may be useful in estimating duration of exposure of target organs to drug-loaded microsphere systems prepared from these proteins.