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The physicochemical compatibility between amphiphilic polymers and hydrophobic drugs has been recognized as an important issue for improving the drug solubilisation in polymeric micelle formulations. In this work, poly-L-lysine (PLL) grafted by cholate pendants as the only hydrophobic moiety were synthesized in order to facilitate the solubilisation of sterol drugs. Results showed that micelles formed by cholate grafted PLL encapsulated significantly higher level of prednisolone and estradiol than palmitoylated PLL micelles, whereas the solubilisation capacity of non-sterol drug (griseofulvin) is inefficient for both polymers. This suggests that higher drug-polymer incorporation can be achieved by the inclusion of hydrophobic moieties with similar architecture as the drugs, i.e. 'drug-like' functional groups, which will be useful for the future design of colloidal systems for the encapsulation of specific drug. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]