Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels Particles and Its Composites with Tunable Properties for Active Agent Delivery

摘要

Hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel particles were synthesized in a single step employing water-in-oil micro emulsion system. The particles are formed in the micro environments of aqueous HA solution in oil by chemical crosslinking with divinyl sulfone (DVS). To induce magnetic responsive behavior to HA particles, HA-iron magnetic nanoparticles (ferrites) were also prepared. Furthermore, to introduce porosity, HA particles in presence of silica precursors were also synthesized as composite materials followed by removal of silica particles with Hydrogen fluoride. The porous HA particles facilitate enhanced active agent loading release performance. We further chemically modified HA particles to generate desired functional groups such as aldehyde, amine, carboxyl, hydroxyl and thiol groups and utilized for the delivery of different drugs and active species. Trimethoprim (TMP) as a bacteriostatic antibiotic drug and steroids were used as model drugs for the release studies from HA and magnetic HA hydrogel particles. We are currently investigating the release of some ophthalmic drugs and magnetic particles encapsulation by HA particles for guided delivery purposes.