Chitosan/Pluronic F127 Thermosensitive Hydrogel as an Injectable Dexamethasone Delivery Carrier

Jomarien García-Couce, Miriela Tomás, Gastón Fuentes, Ivo Que, Amisel Almirall, Luis J. Cruz
2022 Gels  
Intra-articular administration of anti-inflammatory drugs is a strategy that allows localized action on damaged articular cartilage and reduces the side effects associated with systemic drug administration. The objective of this work is to prepare injectable thermosensitive hydrogels for the long-term application of dexamethasone. The hydrogels were prepared by mixing chitosan (CS) and Pluronic-F127 (PF) physically. In addition, tripolyphosphate (TPP) was used as a crosslinking agent. Chitosan
more » ... dded to the mix increased the gel time compared to the pluronic gel alone. The incorporation of TPP into the material modified the morphology of the hydrogels formed. Subsequently, MTS and Live/Dead® experiments were performed to investigate the toxicity of hydrogels against human chondrocytes. The in vitro releases of dexamethasone (DMT) from CS-PF and CS-PF-TPP gels had an initial burst and took more time than that from the PF hydrogel. In vivo studies showed that hydrogels retained the fluorescent compound longer in the joint than when administered in PBS alone. These results suggest that the CS-PF and CS-PF-TPP hydrogels loaded with DMT could be a promising drug delivery platform for the treatment of osteoarthritis.
doi:10.3390/gels8010044 pmid:35049579 pmcid:PMC8774693 fatcat:sn7ypr245veb7jdvechfvkpwra