Influence of Size and Shape on the Biodistribution of Nanoparticles Prepared by Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is a facile one-pot synthetic technique for preparing polymeric nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes for application in a variety of fields including nanomedicine. However, the in vivo biodistribution of nanoparticles obtained by PISA still remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we report the synthesis, cytotoxicity, and biodistribution in an in vivo tumor-bearing mouse model of polystyrene micelles with various sizes and polystyrene filomicelles with different lengths prepared by PISA. First, a library of nanoparticles was prepared comprised of poly(glycidyl methacrylate)-b-poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate)-b-polystyrene polymers, and their size and morphology were tuned by varying the polystyrene block length without affecting the surface chemistry. The 3H) ethanolamine, and a biodistribution study was carried out in nude mice bearing HT1080 tumor xenografts 48 h after intravenous delivery. In this model, we found that small spherical polystyrene core nanoparticles with a PEG corona (diameter 21 nm) have the highest tumor accumulation when compared to the larger spherical nanoparticles (diameter 33 nm) or rodlike (diameter 37 nm, contour length 350–500 nm) or wormlike counterparts (diameter 45 nm, contour length 1–2 μm). This finding has provided critical information on the biodistribution of polystyrene core nanoparticles with a PEG corona of different sizes and shapes prepared by the PISA technique and will inform their use in medical applications.