| 초록 |
Local drug delivery systems in medical therapeutics are important to maximize drug concentration and biological effect in local target tissues while maintaining low systemic levels. In this study, we report grafting of Pluronic® onto the chitosan for application of local drug delivery systems. A novel thermosensitive chitosan copolymer (chitosan-Pluronic®) was prepared by coupling monocarboxy Pluronic® F127 with the chitosan using 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylamino propyl)-carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) as coupling agents. The physicochemical properties of the resulting chitosan copolymer were characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, TGA and solubility test. The gelling temperature was examined by the vial tilting method and the chitosan-Pluronic® showed thermoreversible behaviors. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model drug was formulated with the chitosan-Pluronic® and in vitro release profiles were investigated. From drug release studies in vitro, BSA was sustainedly released from the chitosan-Pluronic® due to the in situ gel formation of the copolymer and viscous properties of the chitosan. These results suggest that thermosensitive chitosan-Pluronic® copolymer has a potential for injectable and local drug delivery applications and can be useful for other biomedical applications. |
