ABSTRACT
Transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) was prepared with temperature-responsive hydrogel. The graphite was oxidized and incorporated into hydrogel matrix to improve the thermal response of hydrogel. The micro heater was fabricated to control the temperature precisely by adopting a joule heating method. The drug in hydrogel was delivered through a hairless mouse skin by controlling temperature. The efficiency of drug delivery was improved obviously by incorporation of graphite oxide due to the excellent thermal conductivity and the increased interfacial affinity between graphite oxide and hydrogel matrix. The fabricated micro heater was effective in controlling the temperature over lower critical solution temperature of hydrogel precisely with a small voltage less than 1 V. The cell viability test on graphite oxide composite hydrogel showed enough safety for using as a transdermal drug delivery patch. The performance of TDDS could be improved noticeably based on temperature-responsive hydrogel, thermally conductive graphite oxide, and efficient micro heater.
Subject(s)
Graphite/administration & dosage , Graphite/chemistry , Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate/administration & dosage , Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate/chemistry , Oxides/administration & dosage , Oxides/chemistry , Animals , Drug Delivery Systems , Mice , Mice, Hairless/metabolism , Skin/metabolism , TemperatureABSTRACT
Electrospinning and fluorination were carried out in order to obtain a controlled release drug delivery system to solve the problem of both an initial burst of the drug and a limited release time. Poly(vinyl alcohol) was electrospun with Procion Blue as a model drug and heat treated in order to obtain cross-linked hydrogel fibers. Two different kinds of electrospun fibers of thin and thick diameters were obtained by controlling the electrospinning conditions. Thin fibers offer more available sites than thick fibers for surface modification during fluorination. Fluorination was conducted to control the release period by introducing hydrophobic functional groups on the surface of fibers. With an increase in the reaction pressure of the fluorine gas hydrophobic C-F and C-F(2) bonds were more effectively introduced. Over-fluorination of the fibers at higher reaction pressures of fluorine gas led to the introduction of C-F(2) bonds, which made the surface of the fibers hydrophobic and resulted in a decrease in their swelling potential. When C-F bonds were generated the initial drug burst decreased dramatically and total release time increased significantly, by a factor of approximately 6.7 times.