Drug release of pH/temperature-responsive calcium alginate/poly(N-isopropylacry...

• Author(s): Shi, Jun ; Alves, N. M. ; Mano, J. F.
• Date: 2006
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/13491
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Alginate; Biomaterials; Drug delivery systems; PH/temperature responsive
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

A series of semi-interpenetrating, polymer network (semi-IPN), hydrogel beads, composed of calcium alginate (Ca-alginate) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAM), were prepared for a pH/temperature-sensitive drug delivery study. The equilibrium swelling showed the independent pH- and thermo- responsive nature of the developed materials. At pH¼2.1, the release amount of indomethacin incorporated into these beads was about 10% within 400 min, while this value approached to 95% at pH¼7.4. The release rate of the drug was higher at 37 8Cthan that at 25 8C and increased slightly with increasing PNIPAAM content. These results suggest that the Caalginate/ PNIPAAM beads have the potential to be used as an effective pH/temperature sustainable delivery system of bioactive agents.