AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.3396
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Dexamethasone-loaded PLGA porous microspheres used as 3D-bioprinted bioink promote tissue-engineered cartilage regeneration

Zhuoqi Chen1 Yanjun Feng1 Yuchen Wang1 Tianfeng Zheng1 Jinshi Zeng1 Wenshuai Liu1 Yue Ma1 Xiaowei Yue1 Tian Li1 Luosha Gu1 Qinghua Yang1* Haiyue Jiang1* Xia Liu1,2*
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1 Research Center of Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
2 Key Laboratory of External Tissue and Organ Regeneration, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
IJB 2024, 10(5), 3396 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.3396
Submitted: 9 April 2024 | Accepted: 3 June 2024 | Published: 27 August 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D printing for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine)
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

The current investigation focused on fabricating and thoroughly analyzing porous microspheres (MPs) comprising poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid, PLGA) encapsulating dexamethasone, by utilizing the water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) emulsion solvent evaporation technique. The meticulous characterization encompassed various parameters, including particle size distribution, morphology, and polymer integrity, all of which exhibited consistent attributes across the MPs populations. The analysis of drug content and release kinetics revealed a sustained and controlled liberation of dexamethasone, characterized by an initial burst release within the initial 3 days followed by a gradual, protracted release profile. Subsequent in vivo assessments further validated the potent anti-inflammatory effects of the dexamethasone-loaded PLGA MPs, as evidenced by notable reductions in CD86 immunohistochemical staining intensity, along with the change in membrane thickness. Additionally, the MPs demonstrated an impressive capability to support the maintenance of cartilage phenotype, as indicated by the augmented secretion of cartilage matrix components and elevated glycosaminoglycan content.  

Keywords
Cartilage repair
Porous microspheres
Dexamethasone
PLGA porous microspheres
Targeted drug delivery
3D bioprinting
Funding
This work was supported by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2021-I2M-1-052, 2017-I2M-1-007), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (82371796, 82302832).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing