• Degradation Behaviors of Poly(L-lactic acid) Microspheres

  • Lie Ma*,**,#, Ailin Shen**,#, Jiayu Gu*, Honghua Hu**, Guoshou Jin**, Jiangfeng Cai**, Bing Feng**, Xiaodong He**,†  , and Jun Ling*,† 

  • *MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    **Zhejiang Wedu Medical Co., Ltd., Hengdian Industrial Zone, Dongyang 322118, China

  • 폴리(L-락트산) 마이크로스피어의 분해 거동

  • Reproduction, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form of any part of this publication is permitted only by written permission from the Polymer Society of Korea.


Abstract

Poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) microspheres have excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability and already been applied as biomedical materials in tissue engineering. However, hydrophobic PLLA exhibits low degradation rate, bringing an obstacle to the generation of new tissues. Incorporating hydrophilic blocks endows diblock copolymer poly(L-lactide)-b-poly(ethylene glycol) (PELA) with improved biodegradability. In the present contribution, degradation behaviors of PLLA and PELA microspheres including mass loss, molecular weight changes, viscosity variation and microscopic morphology difference are monitored and analyzed. The accelerating of PEG blocks is validated. The addition of enzymes including proteinase K and lipase shows negligible effect on the degradation, thus hydrolysis in bulk polymer is proved to be the dominant degradation mechanism. Degradation characteristics including accelerates degradation rate, low surface degradation efficiency and hydrolysis nature make PELA microspheres promising candidate for dermal filler materials.


Keywords: degradation, biomaterials, sustainable materials, block copolymers.

  • Polymer(Korea) 폴리머
  • Frequency : Bimonthly(odd)
    ISSN 2234-8077(Online)
    Abbr. Polym. Korea
  • 2024 Impact Factor : 0.6
  • Indexed in SCIE

This Article

  • 2026; 50(2): 220-225

    Published online Mar 25, 2026

  • 10.7317/pk.2026.50.2.220
  • Received on Jul 23, 2025
  • Revised on Oct 20, 2025
  • Accepted on Nov 2, 2025

Correspondence to

  • Xiaodong He** , and Jun Ling*

  • *MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    **Zhejiang Wedu Medical Co., Ltd., Hengdian Industrial Zone, Dongyang 322118, China

  • E-mail: xd.he@wedumedical.com, lingjun@zju.edu.cn