Abstract
Novel polymeric amphiphilic copolymers were synthesized using chondroitin sulfate (CS) as a hydrophilic segment and poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) as a hydrophobic segment. Micelles of those copolymers were formed in an aqueous phase and were characterized by 1 H NMR spectra, fluorescence techniques, dynamic light scattering (DLS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and confocal microscopy. Their critical aggregation concentrations (CAC) are in the range of 0.0043-0.0091 mg/mL at 25 °C. The partition equilibrium constants, K v , of the pyrene probe in the aqueous solution were from 3.65 × 10 5 to 1.41 × 10 6 at 25 °C. The mean diameters of the micelles were below 200 nm, and their sizes were narrowly distributed. The AFM images revealed that the self-aggregates were spherical. Additionally, the CS n -PLLA micelles can efficiently transport within the cells via endocytosis as observed from confocal microscopy. © 2006 American Chemical Society.