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Injectable hydrogels with two different rates of drug release based on pluronic/water system filled with poly(ε-caprolactone) microcapsules

  • Polymers & biopolymers
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Abstract

The present paper regards the preparation and characterization of Pluronic F127 + F68/water/poly (ε-caprolactone) microcapsules (MCs) composite systems for tissue repair. The first part of the work relates to the production of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) MCs via water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsion system combined with solvent evaporation method. The study of different process parameters in the final MCs characteristics and their drug release profile is herein reported. Different percentages of PCL, emulsion stabilizer, and volume proportions of the emulsion constituents have been tested, leading to considerable differences in the MCs size distributions. The selected MCs, containing an aqueous solution of methylene blue (MB) as a model drug, were then used to fill a Pluronic F127 + F68/water system leading to the final composite system (5 and 10 wt % MB loaded PCL MCs). The composite systems were characterised in the second part of the work in terms of its rheological behaviour and drug release performance. They were found to gellify at 30 °C, and present an extended drug release to a total of 18 days. The models that best define the release profiles were also studied, with the release of MB occurring mostly by Fick diffusion and polymer chain relaxation. Pluronic F127 + F68/water/poly (ε-caprolactone) MCs composite system is shown to be a promising injectable system, with two different drug release rates, for tissue repair.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Fundacão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the support of CERENA (Strategic Project FCT-UIDB/04028/2020) and Cenimat/I3N (Reference UID/CTM/50025/2019) and the FCT Grant SFRH/BD/140700/2018 (M.V.L.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciência Dos Materiais and CENIMAT/I3N, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal

    Beatriz Delgado, Henrique Carrêlo, João Paulo Borges & Maria Teresa Cidade

  2. CERENA, DEQ, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisboa, Portugal

    Beatriz Delgado, Mónica V. Loureiro & Ana C. Marques

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  1. Beatriz Delgado
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Correspondence to Maria Teresa Cidade.

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Delgado, B., Carrêlo, H., Loureiro, M.V. et al. Injectable hydrogels with two different rates of drug release based on pluronic/water system filled with poly(ε-caprolactone) microcapsules. J Mater Sci 56, 13416–13428 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06156-x

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