Studies on preparations and properties of drug-eluting embolization microspheres made from oxidated alginate and carboxymethyl chitosan

Embolization microspheres were prepared through two steps. The microspheres demonstrated regular sphericity with a main size distribution in the range of 100 mu m similar to 270 mu m. An anticancer drug doxorubicin could be loaded into the microspheres with high loading rates from 21% to 32% due to physical and ionic interaction of carboxyl groups in the microspheres and amino groups in doxorubicin. The drug could be controlled released at different pH conditions. The blank microspheres were biodegradable, non-cytotoxic, and the drug-eluting embolization microspheres could be potentially applied as embolic agents in interventional therapy.