Functional design of porous drug delivery systems based on laser assisted manufactured nitinol

摘要

Our previous studies proved the occurrence of the shape memory effect (SME) in a biocompatible porous nitinol (inter-metallic phase NiTi), obtained by the selective laser sintering (SLS) method. In this report we propose to use the SME peculiar to the nitinol, for a functional design of the drug delivery system and to discuss the process flow pattern. In living tissues (flesh) the elevated temperature at the disease origination leads to the nitinol pores size reduction caused by the austenite phase transformation, and to the pharmaceutical composition extrusion from the pores. And vice versa, during the cooling stage when the tissue temperature reverts to normal level, the drug intake will stop. Depending on the type of the three dimensional structure of a porous matrix (scaffold) identified at the stage of a computer-aid-design, the velocity of penetration can be controllable.