Design of a rate- and time-programming drug release device using a hydrogel: pulsatile drug release from kappa-carrageenan hydrogel device by surface erosion of the hydrogel.

We have found that a repetitive pulsatile drug release with a certain time interval is observed from a monolithic hydrogel device by surface erosion of the hydrogel. As a model system of pulsatile drug release, dibucaine hydrochloride and kappa-carrageenan hydrogel were chosen as a drug and a device, respectively. Electrostatic interactions between dibucaine hydrochloride and kappa-carrageenan polymer segments are strong, since dibucaine hydrochloride is positively charged and each disaccharide repeating unit of kappa-carrageenan chains has one sulfate group. Dibucaine hydrochloride was loaded into the hydrogel by immersing dry kappa-carrageenan hydrogel disks in a dibucaine hydrochloride solution for 24 h. The pulsed release of dibucaine hydrochloride from the device was observed every 50 min between 30 and 250 min after the release starts. The weight of kappa-carrageenan hydrogel decreases in an oscillatory manner with time in distilled water. The oscillatory changes observed in the hydrogel weight in distilled water are considered to be caused by influx and efflux of water molecules into and from the surface and core of the hydrogel and by polymer liberation from the hydrogel. This phenomenon was well explained by our kinetic model [Colloids and Surfaces B 8 (1996) 93-100]. The time interval between pulses observed in drug release coincides with that observed in the oscillatory weight change of the hydrogel. From these, it was concluded that the pulsatile release of dibucaine hydrochloride from the device was caused by the pulsatile liberation of swollen kappa-carrageenan hydrogel from the surface of the device.