Synthesis and characterization of magnetic chitosan microspheres for drug delivery

A novel magnetic microsphere was prepared by simple microemulsion polymerization for protein drug delivery systems. The Fe(3)O(4) magnetic nanoparticles were successfully encapsulated in chitosan microspheres, which endowed the chitosan microspheres with good magnetism. The drug loading performance results indicated that the prepared magnetic chitosan microspheres exhibited a superior drug loading capacity, and the drug loading amount reached 947.01 mg g(−1). Furthermore, the magnetic chitosan microspheres also showed a higher drug release rate (87.8%) and evident sustained-release performance in vitro. The magnetic microsphere carrier will be widely used in the biomedical field as a promising drug carrier.