Pharmaceutical Potential of Gelatin as a pH-responsive Porogen for Manufacturing Porous Poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) Microspheres

Porous poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microspheres (PLGA MS) have been utilized as an inhalation delivery system and a matrix scaffold system for tissue engineering. Here, gelatin (type A) is introduced as an extractable pH-responsive porogen, which is capable of controlling the porosity and pore size of PLGA microspheres. Porous PLGA microspheres were prepared by a water-in-oil-in-water ($w_1/o/w_2$) double emulsification/solvent evaporation method. The surface morphology of these microspheres was examined by varying pH (2.0~11.0) of water phases, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, their porosity and pore size were monitored by altering acidification time (1~5 h) using a phosphoric acid solution. Results showed that the pore-forming capability of gelatin was optimized at pH 5.0, and that the surface pore-formation was not significantly observed at pHs of < 4.0 or > 8.0. This was attributable to the balance between gel-formation by electrostatic repulsion and dissolution of gelatin. The appropriate time-selection between PLGA hardening and gelatin-washing out was considered as a second significant factor to control the porosity. Delaying the acidification time to ~5 h after emulsification was clearly effective to make pores in the microspheres. This finding suggests that the porosity and pore size of porous microspheres using gelatin can be significantly controlled depending on water phase pH and gelatin-removal time. The results obtained in this study would provide valuable pharmaceutical information to prepare porous PLGA MS, which is required to control the porosity.