Porous Polymeric Microspheres With Controllable Pore Diameters for Tissue Engineered Lung Tumor Model Development

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Tissue Engineering
• Drug Discovery

Background:

• Complex cell cultures better mimic in vivo conditions for therapeutic screening.
• Porous scaffolds with interconnected pores improve tissue model formation and cell infiltration.
• Poly lactide co-glycolide (PLGA) is a common polymer for creating porous cell culture substrates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for creating porous, biodegradable PLGA microspheres (PPMS) using alginate microspheres (AMS) as porogens.
• To engineer a lung tumor model using PPMS for improved in vitro drug screening.
• To evaluate the drug screening potential of the PPMS-based lung tumor model.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of porous PLGA microspheres (PPMS) using an alginate microsphere (AMS) porogen method.
• Characterization of microsphere morphology, pore size, and porosity.
• Assessment of PPMS degradation and structural integrity.
• Optimization of cell seeding density and collagen coating for co-cultures.
• In vitro drug screening of lung tumor models cultured on PPMS versus monolayer cultures.

Main Results:

• PPMS exhibited controlled pore formation and a porosity of 45.5%.
• PPMS maintained structural integrity during degradation, unlike non-porous PLGA microspheres.
• Collagen coating on PPMS significantly enhanced cell attachment and proliferation.
• The PPMS-based lung tumor model showed higher drug resistance than monolayer cultures.

Conclusions:

• The developed PPMS provide a suitable platform for creating complex tumor cultures.
• This novel approach facilitates early in vitro drug screening with enhanced predictive accuracy.
• The controllable pore size of PPMS is advantageous for tissue-engineered lung tumor model development.