Design and fabrication of injectable teicoplanin-loaded polymeric microcarriers

The main goal of this research work is to design and fabricate an injectable biocompatible and biodegradable microcarrier (MC) for drug delivery into cartilages and bones. Suitable MCs composed of chitosan and gelatin were fabricated with syringe pump equipped with high voltage system. The MCs were crosslinked with sodium tri-polyphosphate (TPP) and the teicoplanin was loaded onto the samples. The crosslinking of the samples was confirmed using FTIR spectra and their morphology was investigated with SEM images. The results confirmed that the MCs were successfully crosslinked with TPP and spherical shaped samples with desired diameter for injection (35050 m) were achieved with flow rate and voltage of 300 µl/min and 8.5 kV, respectively. A thin layer of chitosan was covered onto the fabricated MCs in order to reduce the drug release rate. The result of release test showed that it was increased from 4 to 5 days for covered samples which is more suitable for the claimed application of fabricated MCs. The antimicrobial test was done on the fabricated teicoplanin-loaded MCs and the obtained results confirmed that the antimicrobial properties of drug were remained even after fabrication process. Overall, the obtained results support that the fabricated MCs have potential for using as drug release devices for treatment of cartilage infections.