A new spinning oil film (SOF) solid-in-oil-in-oil emulsion process was developed to produce uniform-sized proteinloaded biodegradable
microspheres. A thin SOF on a cylindrical rotor was used to shear droplets from a nozzle tip to control droplet size. The
resulting microspheres with low polydispersity (6%) produced a low burst (6%–11%) release even at high loadings (13%–18% encapsulated
solids, 8%–12% protein). The SOF process had a high yield and did not require the presence of water, which can cause protein
denaturation, or surfactants, which may be unwanted in the final product. Amorphous protein and crystalline excipient solids
were encapsulated into 3 different polymers, giving a homogenous drug distribution throughout the microspheres, and an essentially
complete protein encapsulation efficiency (average=99%). In contrast, large burst release was observed for polydisperse microspheres
produced by a conventional emulsification technique, particularly for microspheres smaller than 25 μm in diameter, which gave
93% burst at 15% loading. The uniform encapsulation of high loadings of proteins into microspheres with low polydispersity
in an anhydrous process is of practical interest in the development of controlled-release protein therapeutics.
Keywords microsphere size control - monodisperse emulsions - spray freezing into liquid process - bovine serum albumin - solid-in-oil-in-oil processing - PLGA - initial burst
Published: December 6, 2005