In vitro release of chlorhexidine from UV-cured PEGDA drug delivery scaffolds

Drug delivery systems (DDS) are suitable for controlled local drug release in order to ensure safety and effectiveness of medical treatment. The choice and characterization of biomaterials that can be used as a DDS is a challenging step in the administration of drugs. Novel 3D printing photopolymerization-based techniques create the possibility for designing individual, patient-tailored DDS. Poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate`s (PEGDA`s) chemical and biological properties make it a suitable photopolymerisable resin for the creation of DDS. This study describes the in vitro release of the antiseptic drug chlorhexidine (CHX) from UV-cured PEGDA and its copolymers (butanediol diacrylate, pentaerythritol triacrylate and pentaerythritol tetraacrylate) samples. A substantial decrease in CHX release with increasing concentration of the copolymers in comparison to pure PEGDA was obtained only for butanediol diacrylate. For pentaerythritol triacrylate and pentaerythritol tetraacrylate only a tendency of decreased CHX release with increasing concentration was detected. Therefore, release profiles of the low molecular drug CHX from PEGDA samples could be modified by the addition of copolymers with a different number of acrylate groups and PEGDA can be considered as a promising candidate for the preparation of novel DDS.