Development of ocular drug delivery systems using biodegradable polymers

[摘要] The delivery of drugs plays an important role in the treatment of ocular diseases. In this thesis, biocompatible, biodegradable materials such as poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic) (PLGA) were used to prepare delivery systems. PPF together with N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) was photo-crosslinked to generate monolithic polymer rods, which were loaded with either acetazolamide (AZ), dichlorphenamide (DP) or timolol maleate (TM). The release kinetics and structural properties were determined as well as the in vivo degradation. Further studies were performed to examine the influence of PPF molecular weight and the ratio of PPF/PNVP on the release kinetics. In addition, a coaxial electrospinning setup was developed to fabricate PLGA fiber networks as a delivery system.We found that prefabricated, photo-crosslinked PPF/PNVP matrices represent suitable, controllable release systems for different drugs. Furthermore, coaxial electrospinning is a promising technique to generate scaffolds for drug delivery.

[发布机构] Rice University

[效力级别] Biomedical