Preparation of PCL/PEG superporous hydrogel containing drug-loaded nanoparticles: The effect of hydrophobic–hydrophilic interface on the physical properties

• PCL/PEG hydrogels were prepared with linear and dendritic boundaries between two regions.
• Swelling behavior of hydrogels with dendritic boundary shows superporous system.
• Drug loaded-nanoparticles were imbedded in both hydrogels.
• Dendritic hydrogels show a drug release profile similar to the free nanoparticles.

A series of novel amphiphilic hydrogels were synthesized by photopolymerization of diacrylated polyethylene glycol as hydrophilic parts and polycaprolactone (PCL) terminated with linear acrylates (G0.5) and dendritic ones (G1.5) as hydrophobic segments in the presence of Irgacure 2959 as initiator. Water absorbency, water content percentage and in-vitro degradation of all hydrogels were determined. Due to their fast swelling and high swelling ratios, these hydrogels have the capability of using as superporous hydrogels. Tandem acrylation/Michael addition by acryloyl chloride and diethanolamine were used to prepare the second generation of aminoester–polycaprolactone–aminoester triblock copolymer (G2) with dendritic–linear–dendritic structure. All steps were characterized by FT-IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. In order to evaluate the ability of synthesized hydrogels as biodevice materials, the release profile of hydrogels containing quercetin-loaded nanoparticles was determined and compared with the free nanoparticles. Drug-loaded nanoparticles with 88 nm in diameter were prepared by nanoprecipitation method using G2 as polymeric carrier.

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