Design, production and characterization of polymeric microparticles containing vitamins for in vitro cell treatment on lab-on-a-chip

A new lab-on-a-chip prototype, recently described, thanks to the use of integrated circuit technology, can generate dielectrophoretic fields that immobilize and allow the control of single biological objects, such as cells, liposomes, or microspheres immersed in a liquid overhanging and in contact with the same chip. With the aim to design and produce polymeric microparticles for specific lab-on-a-chip applications, in the present paper the preparation and characterization of microparticles based on cellulose acetate and cellulose acetate plus other cellulosic polymers is described, by a solvent evaporation procedure. In particular the following aspects were investigated: (a) the polymer solubilities, (b) the experimental parameters used for the solvent evaporation procedure, (c) the effect of dyes on the microparticle preparation and morphology, (d) the entrapment efficiency of the vitamins (D3 and E) and, finally, (e) the release kinetics of vitamins from cellulosic microparticles.