Abstract
Microfluidics research for various applications, including drug delivery, cell-based assays and biomedical research has grown exponentially. Despite this technology’s enormous potential, drawbacks include the need for multistep fabrication, typically with lithography. We present a one-step fabrication process of a microfluidic chip for drug dissolution assays based on a 3D printing technology. Doxorubicin porous and non-porous microspheres, with a mean diameter of 250µm, were fabricated using a conventional “batch” or microfluidic method, based on an optimized solid-in-oil-in-water protocol. Microspheres fabricated with microfluidics system exhibited higher encapsulation efficiency and drug content as compared with batch formulations. We determined drug release profiles of microspheres in varying pH conditions using two distinct dissolution devices that differed in their mechanical barrier structures. The release profile of the “V” shape barrier was similar to that of the dialysis sac test and differed from the “basket” barrier design. Importantly, a cytotoxicity test confirmed biocompatibility of the printed resin. Finally, the chip exhibited high durability and stability, enabling multiple recycling sessions. We show how the combination of microfluidics and 3D printing can reduce costs and time, providing an efficient platform for particle production while offering a feasible cost-effective alternative to clean-room facility polydimethylsiloxane-based chip microfabrication.
Highlights
In recent decades, microfluidic research has gained tremendous momentum and opened a new era for advanced and innovative research down to the micron and submicron scale
The hydrophilic chemotherapy drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was loaded into a hydrophobic polymer core using a S/O/W protocol, either by using microfluidics or in a conventional batch synthesis method
The objective was to compare the effect of the fabrication approach on the encapsulation efficiency, drug content and the polydispersity index
Summary
Microfluidic research has gained tremendous momentum and opened a new era for advanced and innovative research down to the micron and submicron scale. Similar to cutting-edge sensors and pump platforms, these micron-scale chips can gently manipulate fluid flow with small sample volumes, providing alternative and more efficient systems in a broad range of applications (e.g., biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and pharmaceutics). These are characterized by high-throughput and parallel analysis leading to overall reduced costs [1,2,3]. Among AD methods, digital light processing (DLP) has emerged as an attractive 3D printing technology, due to both its high printing resolution and its relatively low costs This has led to its widespread availability to private consumers and research institutions. The printed objects are built from a resin in a layer-by-layer
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