The importance of gel properties for mucoadhesion measurements: a multivariate data analysis approach.

In this study we used tensile strength measurements and a recently developed interpretation procedure to evaluate the mucoadhesive properties of a large set of gel preparations with diverse rheological properties. Multivariate data analysis in the form of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square projection to latent structures (PLS) was applied to extract useful information from the rather large quantities of data obtained. PCA showed that the selected series of gels was heterogeneous. Some groupings could be detected but none of the gels was identified as an outlier. By using PLS we investigated the relations between the rheological properties of a gel and the parameters defining the cohesiveness, as measured with the texture analyser used for the mucoadhesion measurements. The rheological properties proved to be important for the results of both the mucoadhesion and the cohesiveness measurements. Furthermore, by using PLS two different measurement configurations were evaluated and it was concluded that the combination of a relatively small volume of gel and two pieces of mucosa seems to be more appropriate than a large volume of gel in combination with one piece of mucosa.