Porous bovine hydroxyapatite for drug delivery.

Biomaterials derived from natural sources have considerable interest in human health care. This study reports a simple method of designing a bone drug delivery system using porous bovine hydroxyapatite (BHA). The porous BHA blocks with different porosity were fabricated by a die-pressing method using polyvinylbutyral (PVB) as a porosifier. A model antibiotic drug, neomycin sulfate (NS) was loaded in the blocks and its in vitro release performance was studied. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis provided qualitative proof of drug molecule entrapment in the BHA blocks. The in vitro evaluation of the drug indicated that the rate of drug loading and release was directly proportional to the porosity of the blocks.