Abstract
Some of thermo-responsive polysaccharides, namely, cellulose, xyloglucan, and chitosan, and protein-like gelatin or elastin-like polypeptides can exhibit temperature dependent sol–gel transitions. Due to their biodegradability, biocompatibility, and non-toxicity, such biomaterials are becoming popular for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. This paper aims to review the properties of sol–gel transition, mechanical strength, drug release (bioavailability of drugs), and cytotoxicity of stimuli-responsive hydrogel made of thermo-responsive biopolymers in drug delivery systems. One of the major applications of such thermos-responsive biopolymers is on textile-based transdermal therapy where the formulation, mechanical, and drug release properties and the cytotoxicity of thermo-responsive hydrogel in drug delivery systems of traditional Chinese medicine have been fully reviewed. Textile-based transdermal therapy, a non-invasive method to treat skin-related disease, can overcome the poor bioavailability of drugs from conventional non-invasive administration. This study also discusses the future prospects of stimuli-responsive hydrogels made of thermo-responsive biopolymers for non-invasive treatment of skin-related disease via textile-based transdermal therapy.
Highlights
Hydrogels are widely being applied in biomedical areas for drug delivery because of their advanced properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and nontoxicity [1]
The hydrogel systems based on thermo-responsive polymers such as PF127 find multi-directional drug delivery and tissue engineering applications such as pluronics can show thermo-gelation at physiological temperatures, and drug delivery systems are reported to have advanced properties such as site-specific delivery along with controlled and sustained delivery of drug molecules
Our group has published some articles on the transdermal delivery of drugs for the treatment of atopic dermatitis using PF127-based hydrogels
Summary
Hydrogels are widely being applied in biomedical areas for drug delivery because of their advanced properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and nontoxicity [1]. The physically cross-linked injectable thermo-responsive hydrogel of chitosan was developed for the effective and sustained delivery of disulfiram to the cancer cells and these gel systems showed excellent biocompatibility and cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner on SMMC7721 cells [53]. O-methylated D-glucopyranose and D-glucopyranose units glucan units substituted with xylose Some proteins such as gelatin, collagen, and elastin-like polypeptides can show thermo-responsive properties, and the chemical modification or physical blending with other compounds can render them more suitability and sustainability towards drug delivery and tissue engineering applications [61].
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