Microgels based on poly(vinyl alcohol), PVA, grafted with methacrylate side chains, MA, incorporating N-isopropylacrylamide, NiPAAm, monomer, were prepared by water-in-water emulsion polymerization method. These systems exhibit a spherical shape and a volume-phase transition, that is, shrinking, below physiological temperature. The behavior of these microgels were studied with respect to their average size and size distribution, swelling, and release properties. It was observed that the stirring speed is a key parameter for controlling the amount of incorporated NiPAAm, the particle size and the sharpness of the volume-phase transition. The volumephase transition temperature, VPPT, of the microgels was evaluated around 38 and 34°C for microgels with a NiPAAm/methacrylate molar ratio of 0.8 and 2.4, respectively. Water uptake increased with the amount of NiPAAm monomer present in the polymer network. In vitro biocompatibility of microgels was assessed with respect to NIH3T3 mouse fibroblasts. O-Succinoylated microgels were loaded with doxorubicin by exploiting the favorable electrostatic interaction between negatively charged microgel surface and positively charged doxorubicin. The drug release was influenced by the microgels surface/volume ratio. At physiological temperatures, above the VPTT exhibited by these systems, the release was enhanced by the specific area increase. This study provides the background for the design of an injectable device suitable for the controlled delivery of doxorubicin based on the volume-phase transition of microgels.

Sustained drug delivery requires the use of multifunctional devices with enhanced properties. These properties include responsiveness to external stimuli (such as temperature, pH, ionic strength), ability to deliver suitably designed ligands to specific receptors, enhanced bioadhesion to cells, and cytocompatibility. Microgels represent one of such multifunctional drug delivery devices. Recently, we described the fabrication of a stable colloidal aqueous suspension of cytocompatible microgel spheres based on a poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(methacrylate-co-N-isopropylacrylamide) network ( Ghugare, S. Mozetic, P. Paradossi, G. Biomacromolecules 2009 , 10 , 1589 ). These microgel spheres undergo an entropy-driven volume phase transition around the physiological temperature, this phase transition being driven by the incorporation of NiPAAm residues in the network. In that study, the microgel was loaded with the anticancer drug doxorubicin. As the microgel shrank, a marked increase in the amount of doxorubicin released was noted. Indeed, dynamic light scattering measurements showed the diameter reduction to be about 50%. In the present paper, we focus on some fundamental issues regarding modifications of the hydrogel architecture at a nanoscopic level as well as of the diffusive behavior of water associated with the polymer network around the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT). Sieving and size exclusion effects were studied by laser scanning confocal microscopy with the microgel exposed to fluorescent probes with different molecular weights. Confocal microscopy observations at room temperature and at 40 degrees C (i.e., below and above the VPTT) provided an evaluation of the variation of the average pore size (from 5 nm to less than 3 nm). Using quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) with the IRIS spectrometer at ISIS, UK, the diffusive behavior of water molecules closely associated to the polymer network around the VPTT was investigated. A clear change in the values of diffusion coefficient of bound water was observed at the transition temperature. In addition, the local dynamics of the polymer itself was probed using the QENS spectrometer SPHERES at FRM II, Germany. For this study, the microgel was swollen in D(2)O. An average characteristic distance of about 5 A for the localized chain motions was evaluated from the elastic incoherent structure factor (EISF) and from the Q-dependence of the Lorentzian width.

Characterization of switchable microgels is a major task in drug delivery science. The study of soft polymeric devices requires a combined use of spectroscopy, microscopy, and scattering approaches enabling the characterization of nanostructured features across a volume phase transition. In this work the structural changes of poly(vinyl alcohol) based thermoreversible microgel particles which incorporate p(NiPAAm-co-methacrylate) chains across the transition temperature occurring at 33°C have been addressed by utilizing reciprocal and direct space approaches such as small angle neutron scattering, SANS, dynamic light scattering, DLS, soft transmittance X-ray microscopy, STXM, and confocal laser scanning microscopy, CLSM, respectively. The comparison between the results obtained from those approaches allows an evaluation of the driving forces acting in the transition and reveals the changes in the microgel structure at nanoscale level. The structure of the poly(vinyl alcohol) based microgel particles, incorporating p(NiPAAm) sequences, consist of a hydrogel core and of a crown of polymer chains projected, at room temperature, in aqueous medium. An increase of the temperature above 33°C causes a volume phase transition of the system characterized by the collapse of the particle core and of the chains grafted at the particle surface. This transition is accompanied by a massive release of water and an increase of the interface with the dispersing aqueous medium, causing the passage from a permeable to a semipermeable structure.

Chemoselective chemistry is one of the main synthetic strategies for the design of bioactive constructs. In this contribution we report on the fabrication of core-shell microgel particles, obtained by "click chemistry" and "inverse emulsion droplets" techniques. Azido and alkyne derivatives of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in a 1:2 mol ratio of functional groups, respectively, were crosslinked by click chemistry method. The microgel particles were spherical in shape with an average diameter of about 2 μm and with a narrow size distribution. Residual unreacted alkyne groups present on the particle surface were "clicked" with an azido-grafted hyaluronic acid. These microgel particles with a PVA core and a hyaluronic acid shell were tested for bioorthogonality, that is, for the absence of cytotoxicity in the presence of unreacted clickable functionalities and demonstrated a remarkable ability to target adenocarcinoma colon cells (HT- 29) as well as to release locally the antitumor drug, doxorubicin. Internalization process was studied in connection with the presence of hyaluronic acid on the microgel particles surface. In this paper we introduce a concept device based on chemoselective chemistry, which may contribute to the design of micro- and nanoplatforms having controlled and multifunctional structures.

Sustained drug delivery represents a major challenge in nanomedicine. Solutions to the many requirements posed by this field are not easy to address using a unique delivery vehicle. In recent years, our goal has been to implement such requirements in a single device by manipulating the structural and functional features of “soft” biocompatible drug delivery platforms. In this paper we describe a set of biocompatible drug delivery materials, with controlled structure and dimension, which are both biodegradable in a time frame of interest and designed as drug vectors for therapeutic approaches. These microdevices were obtained using ultrasound assisted “water-in-water” emulsification. The resulting material was a spherical shaped microgel with controlled pore size and water content. The dynamic behaviour of water in these matrixes showed a remarkable supercooling effect, an effect which was more pronounced for those microgels with smaller mesh sizes. The biodegradability of the microgel was monitored by observing the enzymatic breakdown of the material both as a whole, i.e. by observing a large number of microgel particles, and by focussing on single particles. A complex degradation pattern was observed, with the particles first increasing their size followed by a complete structural demolition. The time required to fully degrade a microgel can be tuned by varying the relative enzyme content and/or the degree of crosslinking of the networ

Combined reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) and chemoselective "click" chemistry are used for assembling two polymeric chains into a hybrid network capable to respond simultaneously or separately to different external stimuli. An azido-derivative of hyaluronate is clicked together with a new telechelic RAFT-generated p(NiPAAm), carrying a propargyl function at both ends, suitable as macromolecular "clickable" cross-linker with controlled molecular weight. This hybrid system displays a multiresponsive behavior versus temperature, pH, and ionic strength, maintaining cumulative as well as separate sensitivities to the external stimuli. Hyaluronidase catalyzed degradation of the hydrogels, mimicking the extracellular matrix degradation process, is an additional asset for the use of this class of hydrogels as scaffold. Tumor cells, HT-29, grow on the surface of these hybrid hydrogels more than the healthy ones, as NIH3T3. This finding opens a road to micro- and nano-devices based on hyaluronic acid as a promising biopolymer to pursue localized drug delivery.

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High resolution scanning soft X-ray transmission microscopy (STXM) has been employed to investigate individual thermoresponsive microgel particles in aqueous environments. STXM generates 2-dimensional projections with spatial resolutions in the regime of a few 10 s of nm. In the present study we are able to regain a 3D representation of the investigated specimen and observe the deswelling of the microgel particles upon heating, thus offering insight into the thermoresponsive behaviour of individual differently sized particles. We employ a 2-shell model that is able to derive the radial concentration profile of individual microgels particles and thus serves as a complementary method to scattering experiments that average over all particles. Furthermore, we are able to detect the different deswelling behaviour of the particle interior and its interface to the water environment.