Investigation of swellable poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) based hydrogels for drug delivery

The thermo-sensitive properties of poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) hydrogels are modified by the addition of hydrophilic acrylamide comonomers and an interpenetrating network of sodium alginate for drug delivery applications near 37 °C. A mathematical model is presented to describe the mass transport kinetics during the hydrogel drug delivery process, which is accompanied by a volume change during phase transition. In this model, the transport in the polymer matrix is described by Fick's second law in cylindrical coordinates, with concentration dependent diffusion coefficients. The moving boundary problems caused by the polymer matrix swelling are also solved by numerical simulation. The models show that the Trypan blue release from the modified PNIPA-based hydrogels is strongly concentration dependent. The sodium alginate component is also shown to effectively facilitate the diffusion process. The results from the simulation are in good agreement with the measurements of diffusion and swelling observed from in vitro experiments. The implications of this work are also discussed for practical drug delivery systems.

Research Highlights
► Measured and modeled modified poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels.
► Improved phase transition temperature and diffusion properties near 37 °C.
► Modeled drug release by concentration dependent diffusion and moving boundary.
► Models match well with the release profile from PNIPA-based hydrogels.