Abstract: Objective：
To prepare doxorubicin-loaded polyvinylalcohol-acrylic acid (PVA-AA) microspheres and evaluate properties of this chemoembolic agent. Methods: PVA-AA microspheres were synthesized by inverse suspension polymerization method and then verified by infrared spectroscopy. drug loading (DL) and entrapment efficiency (EE%) were measured after doxorubicinwas loaded on PVA-AA microspheres. Their morphology and elasticity were investigated by optical microscope，environmental scanning electron microscope and texture analyzer，respectively. T-cell apparatus was used to evaluate the in vitro release behavior of doxorubicin-loaded microspheres.The external carotid of the rabbit was chosen as an embolization site to evaluate the in vivo embolic property of the microspheres. Results：PVA-AA microspheres, which were transparent spheres，turned into red spheres after doxorubicin loading. DL of the microspheres was （20.56±0.69）g/L and （23.25±0.27）g/L，and EE% was 82.22%±2.76% and 93.00%±1.06% within 20 min and 6 h，respectively. The in vitro release results showed a significantly delayed release of the drug for 10.32%±0.47% after 24 h. The Young’s modulus was （178.30±12.33） kPa and （213.29±15.61） kPa for blank microspheres and doxorubicinloaded microspheres，respectively. Both blank microspheres and doxorubicinloaded microspheres exhibited good elasticity. In vivo embolization showed that 0.3 mL of microspheres could produce distal embolic efficiency. Conclusion：The doxorubicin-loaded microspheres are expected to be a promising new chemoembolic agent.

Key words: Doxorubicin, Microspheres, Chemoembolization, therapeutic, Ion exchange