Liu YS, Lin XZ, Tsai HM, Tsai HW, Chen GC, Chen SF, Kang JW, Chou CM, Chen CY. Development of biodegradable radiopaque microsphere for arterial embolization-a pig study. World J Radiol 2015; 7(8): 212-219 [PMID: 26339465 DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v7.i8.212]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Chiung-Yu Chen, Medicinae Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, #138 Sheng-Li Road, Tainan 704, Taiwan. chiungyu@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Yi-Sheng Liu, Hong-Ming Tsai, Chen-Miao Chou, Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 704, Taiwan
Xi-Zhang Lin, Guan-Cheng Chen, Syuan-Fong Chen, Jui-Wen Kang, Chiung-Yu Chen, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 704, Taiwan
Hung-Wen Tsai, Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 704, Taiwan
Author contributions: Lin XZ, Chen CY and Liu YS designed research; Liu YS, Chen GC, Chen SF and Kang JW performed research; Tsai HW contributed pathology reading; Lin XZ and Chen CY analyzed data; Chen CY and Liu YS wrote paper; all authors contributed to this paper.
Supported by The National Cheng-Kung University Hospital, No. NCKUH-102-01003.
Institutional review board statement: The experiment was approved by the ethical committee of the animal center of National Cheng Kung University (IACUC approval No. 102046).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The experiment was approved by the ethical committee of the animal center of National Cheng Kung University (IACUC approval No. 102046).
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Chiung-Yu Chen, Medicinae Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, #138 Sheng-Li Road, Tainan 704, Taiwan. chiungyu@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Received: May 3, 2015 Peer-review started: May 3, 2015 First decision: June 18, 2015 Revised: July 7, 2015 Accepted: July 29, 2015 Article in press: August 3, 2015 Published online: August 28, 2015 Processing time: 123 Days and 4.6 Hours
Abstract
AIM: To develop a new type of calibrated, biodegradable, and imaging detectable microsphere and evaluated its embolization safety and efficacy on pig’s liver and spleen.
METHODS: Six kinds of pharmaceutical excipient were combined and atomized to form our microsphere. Twenty-four male Lanyu pigs weighing 25-30 kg were used. The arteries of spleen and liver were embolized with Gelfoam, Embosphere, or our microsphere. The serum biochemical tests, computed tomography (CT), liver perfusion scan, and tissue microscopy examination were done to evaluate the safety and efficacy of embolization.
RESULTS: Radiopaque microspheres with a size ranging from 300 to 400 μm were produced. Embolization of hepatic and splenic artery of pigs with our microsphere significantly reduced the blood flow of liver and resulted in splenic infarction. The follow-up CT imaging and the microscopic examination showed intraarterial degradation of Gelfoam and microsphere. The blood tests demonstrated insignificant changes with regards to liver and renal functions.
CONCLUSION: Our microspheres, with the unique characteristics, can be used for transcatheter arterial embolization with effects equivalent to or better than Gelfoam and Embosphere in pigs.
Core tip: Transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) is the treatment of choice for intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinoma. Various embolization materials have been designed for this purpose. By using atomization technique and a mixture of pharmaceutical excipient, we developed a new type of calibrated, biodegradable, and imaging detectable microsphere. We proved that our microspheres, with the unique characteristics, can be used for TAE with effects equivalent to or better than Gelfoam and Embosphere in pigs.
