Wet Spinning of Poly(4-hydroxybutyrate) to Produce Drug-loaded Fibers for Controlled Drug Delivery

摘要

The most suitable conditions for the wet spinning of P4HB were found to involve the use of chloroform as the solvent for preparing the polymer dope and coagulating this solution in an alcohol bath at 10° C using a 25-gauge needle. After studying the wet spinning process for the P4HB polymer, drug incorporation will be studied by adding a sample drug (levofloxacin) to the polymer solution and spinning drug-loaded fibers. These drug loaded fibers will be tested for their diameter, surface uniformity, thermal profile, and drug loading efficiency. The final step in this project will be to determine the drug release profile of the fibers by conducting an in-vitro degradation study of the P4HB fibers and measuring the amount of drug released over a series of weeks.