Niflumic acid-collagen delivery systems used as anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics in dentistry

Collagen sponges are known to be safe and well-characterized supports for drug delivery systems. The aim of this study was to prepare, characterize and test drug delivery systems that contain collagen as support and niflumic acid as a drug. Type-I collagen and niflumic acid gels were cross-linked with different concentrations of glutaraldehyde and then freeze-dried in order to obtain collagen matrices (spongious form). The physical-chemical properties were assessed by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and morphological properties were evaluated by water absorption. Niflumic acid release from cross-linked collagen spongious forms was also investigated and the kinetic mechanism was discussed.