The controllable preparation of porous PLGA microspheres by the oil/water emulsion method and its application in 3D culture of ovarian cancer cells

In this study, we prepared surface-smooth and porous poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres with different diameters, different sizes of pores and different densities of pores using a simple oil/water emulsion method and varying the preparation conditions, including the molecular weight of PLGA, the components of the PLGA and the addition of porogen. The surface-smooth nonporous and porous PLGA microspheres were also further modified with collagen I. The characteristics of these PLGA microspheres, including original and collagen I-coated PLGA microspheres, were evaluated in a three-dimensional (3D) culture of ovarian cancer HO8910 cells. The HO8910 cells can growth better on original porous and collagen I-coated PLGA microspheres, and express remarkably E-cadherin. These results indicate that porous PLGA microspheres and collagen-coated PLGA microspheres are promising candidates as ovarian cancer cell culture microcarriers for pathological study and high-throughput antitumor drug screening.