Investigations of mass transfer in simulated biomedical systems

Abstract

The work motivation was to investigate in vitro system simulating drug release from Drug Eluting Stent (DES). The experiments were conducted in a custom designed unit simulating drug release from polymer covering DES in a simplified way. The active substance diffuses from a thin, internal annular layer of hydrogel (imitating “stent”) to the outer cylindrical layer of hydrogel (“artery wall”) and is at once drifted away by coaxially flowing solution (“blood”). The conducted research proved functionality of the experimental unit. The rate of mass transfer depends considerably on the mass driving force and on the affinity of substance-hydrogel. The volumetric flow rate and liquid viscosity did not affect the process significantly. The effective diffusion coefficient was calculated as a process parameter and then used in the other variants. Diffusion in hydrogel is the mechanism limiting the mass transfer in the examined system. For the first attempt, the diffusive model used in literature was employed. The provided calculations are consistent with experimental data and therefore show that despite its simplifications the model allows to estimate the amount of released substance. In conclusion, the relative substance mass, changing over time, was estimated in the respective parts of the unit. The prospect of determining the relative mass of the substance appearing in the subsequent parts of the system over time provides the opportunity to adjust the respective process parameters, which will facilitate control over the rate of mass release.