Control of size dispersity of chitosan biopolymer microparticles and nanoparticles to influence vaccine trafficking and cell uptake.

Structurally related surfactant molecules were exploited to generate chitosan emulsions to provide systematic variation in micelle radii of curvature and size. These compositions provide precise control of chitosan particle dispersity, that is, size distribution according to three quantitative distribution parameters as well as shape distribution. This resulted in a suite of particle size distributions spanning 71 nm to 3.7 μm and a very high degree of particle sphericity, allowing the influence of particle size to be isolated in two in vivo studies relating biopolymer particle size to cellular uptake and trafficking to lymph nodes. Flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy indicated that the three cell lines examined preferentially internalized chitosan microparticles to a greater extent than nanoparticles over a 24 h period. In an in vivo mouse model, nanoparticles initially trafficked rapidly to lymph nodes draining the site of inoculation followed by further slower uptake. Microparticles trafficked to the lymph nodes with a similar pattern except that the initial discharge was ∼50-fold less than that observed with nanoparticles indicating a profound difference in the physiological transport properties of the two particle types.