In a variety of disease settings the expression of the endothelial selectins E- and P-selectin appears to be increased. This feature makes these molecules attractive targets around which to design directed drug-delivery schemes. One possible approach for achieving such delivery is to use polymeric biodegradable microspheres bearing a humanized monoclonal antibody (MAb) for E- and P-selectin, MAb HuEP5C7.g2. Perhaps the simplest technique for "coupling" HuEP5C7.g2 to the microspheres is via nonspecific adsorption. Previous studies suggest, however, that the adsorption of proteins onto microspheres fabricated in the presence of a stabilizer such as poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is limited. It is unclear to what extent this limited level of adsorbed HuEP5C7.g2 would be able to support adhesion to E- and P-selectin under flow conditions. To explore this issue, we prepared microspheres from the biodegradable polymer, poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), using a single emulsion process and PVA as a stabilizer. We then incubated the PCL microspheres with HuEP5C7.g2 and studied the adhesion of the resulting HuEP5C7.g2 microspheres to E- and P-selectin under in vitro flow conditions. We found that the HuEP5C7.g2 PCL microspheres exhibit specific adhesion to Chinese hamster ovary cells stably expressing P-selectin (CHO-P) and 4-h IL-1beta-activated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). In contrast, HuEP5C7.g2 PCL microspheres exhibit little adhesion to parental CHO cells or unactivated HUVEC. The attachment efficiency to the selectin substrates was quite low, with appreciable attachment occurring only at low shear (0.3 dyn/cm(2)). Other supporting data strongly suggest that the limited attachment efficiency is due to a low level of HuEP5C7.g2 adsorbed to the PCL microspheres. Although the attachment was limited, a significant percentage of the HuEP5C7.g2 PCL microspheres were able to remain adherent at relatively high shear (8 dyn/cm(2)). Combined, our data suggest that HuEP5C7.g2 PCL microspheres exhibit selective limited adhesion to cellular substrate expressing E- and P-selectin. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.