Abstract

Surface physicochemistry properties of polymer particles are crucial for protein corona formation and macrophage phagocytosis when they contact with living body. In this work, polystyrene microspheres (PS-MSs) were selected as a model of polymer microparticles and fabricated by chromic acid etching through controlling conditions to obtain different surface morphology structures and to investigate their effect on the protein adsorption and phagocytic uptake of PS-MSs. The adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and fibrinogen (FIB) on PS-MSs showed almost the same tendency, i.e. the etched PS-MSs presented lower protein adsorption compared with original microspheres. The adsorption of BSA and FIB was the lowest when the protuberances on the etched surfaces were maximum and the size of the protuberances was minimum. Furthermore, the surface morphologies of PS-MSs were influenced in return not only by the amounts of proteins but also by protein types. Meanwhile, the macrophages phagocytosis of PS-MSs depended on the amounts and kinds of adsorbed proteins, especially the albumin content. In a word, phagocytosis and protein adsorption can be regulated by microsphere morphologies through etching, which provides a promising strategy to avoid invalid uptake for polymer particles such as drug delivery carriers.

摘要

当聚合物颗粒与生物体接触时，聚合物颗粒的表面物理化学特性对于蛋白质电晕形成和巨噬细胞吞噬作用至关重要。在这项工作中，选择聚苯乙烯微球（PS-MSs）作为聚合物微粒的模型，通过控制条件通过铬酸蚀刻制备以获得不同的表面形貌结构，并研究它们对 PS-MSs 的蛋白质吸附和吞噬吸收的影响. 牛血清白蛋白（BSA）和纤维蛋白原（FIB）在PS-MSs上的吸附表现出几乎相同的趋势，即与原始微球相比，蚀刻的PS-MSs表现出较低的蛋白质吸附。BSA和FIB的吸附在蚀刻表面的突起最大和突起的尺寸最小时最低。此外，PS-MS 的表面形态不仅受蛋白质数量的影响，还受蛋白质类型的影响。同时，PS-MSs的巨噬细胞吞噬作用取决于吸附蛋白质的数量和种类，尤其是白蛋白含量。总之，吞噬作用和蛋白质吸附可以通过蚀刻通过微球形态进行调节，这为避免聚合物颗粒如药物递送载体的无效吸收提供了一种有前景的策略。