DEVELOPMENT OF POROUS CALCIUM PHOSPHATE CERAMIC

BASED IMPLANTABLE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINED

RELEASE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN VITRO

Parekh G. *, Datta S. #, Kundu B. #, Basu D. #, Mathew L. *

*Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
#
Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, CSIR, Kolkata, India

Abstract

The osteomyelitis treatment by conventional antibiotic delivery system does not cure the
infection due to short contact duration with the site of microbial growth. Thus an
implantable drug delivery technique is a very effective way to counter this problem.
Hydroxyapatite (HAP), beta-tri calcium phosphate (P1000) and bioactive glass (BAG1) are
bioceramic materials known to be bioactive and are used to fabricate scaffolds to
release osteomyelitis drugs. However, high porosity and high interconnectivity of pores
in the scaffolds play a pivotal role in the drug release and bone regrowth. In this article,
a novel approach of forming Hap, β-TCP, Bioactive glass based porous scaffolds by
applying together starch consolidation with foaming method was used. The variations of
porosity were studies by varying the foaming time while preparing the slurry. For this
purpose, pure HAP andβ-TCP powderswere prepared by wet chemical synthesis with
co-precipitation technique, while Bioglass was prepared by conventional glass fusion
method in the laboratory. After thorough characterization (including XRD, FTIR, particle
size distribution, etc.) of the powders, they were used for scaffold fabrication by slip
casting method, and finally sintering. For optimizing the scaffold good sustained release
characteristics was compared with the extent of open porosity. The ability of these
scaffolds to release drugs suitably for osteomyelitis was studied in vitro in a simulated
body fluid medium.Thus the leaching process of the scaffold along with the drug release
was studied critically. Out of the three materials it was concluded that BAG1 had
minimum apparent porosity along with least elution profile not lasting for even 15 days
of elution study. While on the other hand P1000 with 4mins foaming time had best elution
profile with maximum porosity.