Development of multilayered sintered microsphere coatings to create unique delivery profiles

摘要

A cascade of endogenous growth factors plays a role in bone healing following fracture. Including growth factors with time-variant concentrations in tissue-implant sites may improve healing response and prosthesis fixation. Biodegradable polymer coatings can be used to deliver osteotropic biomolecules. By nonuniformly immobilizing growth factors in device coatings, time-variant release profiles can be created. Multilayered coatings were fabricated by pressure-sintering protein-loaded microspheres. Protein release was strongly dependent on polymer degradation. Significant increases in protein delivery from 6 to 16 days were accomplished by varying the thickness of protein-loaded layers and by using additional coating layers to vary pathlength.