One-step fabrication of inorganic/organic hybrid microspheres with tunable surface texture for controlled drug release application

In this paper, we report one-step fabrication of poly(lactide-co-glycolic acid)/titanium oxide (PLGA/TiO2) hybrid microspheres with tunable surface texture via droplet-based microfluidics. Surface texture of microspheres can be continuously tuned by changing the mass ratio between titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) and PLGA in the dispersed phase. The fast hydrolysis of TTIP on the droplet surface can generate a thin shell membrane, resulting in a wrinkled surface after extraction of organic solvent. In vitro drug release monitoring of tanshinone IIA-loaded PLGA/TiO2 hybrid microsphere reveals that surface texture can affect the drug release rate to a large extent without sacrificing the drug encapsulation efficiency. Our finding might benefit the sustained drug delivery where variable drug release rate and high drug encapsulation efficiency are both required.