Preparation and Characterization of Biomedical Collagen-Chitosan Scaffolds With Entrapped Ibuprofen and Silver Nanoparticles

In this work, the preparation and characterization of a novel multifunctional collagen-chitosan material containing silver nanoparticles and nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen is described. As a starting material, the commercially available collagen-chitosan scaffold was used. Drug-loading procedure was performed via supercritical C[O.sub.2.sup.-] Assisted impregnation technique. Silver nanoparticles were prepared via metal vapor synthesis and introduced into the composite biopolymer matrix. An analysis of the small-angle X-ray scattering profiles revealed that silver nanoparticles are characterized by having a logarithmic normal size distribution with the maximum at 25 nm. The average size of particles determined from the broadening of diffraction peaks is in a good agreement with this result. The surface of the materials was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The in vitro release kinetics of ibuprofen in phosphate buffer solution with pH = 7.4 from prepared materials was studied. The drug release to solution is governed by Fickian diffusion and can be described within the Ritger-Peppas model. Introduction of silver nanoparticles has no effect on the diffusion mechanism. The as-prepared materials are promising for the medical applications such as dressings for treatments of infected wounds and infection preventing. These materials can act as a matrix for transdermal drug administration.
INTRODUCTION Collagen-chitosan scaffolds are very promising materials in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as implants or dressings [1, 2], These materials are of special interest for treatment of skin damage, [...]