Designing novel macroporous composite hydrogels based on methacrylic acid copolymers and chitosan and in vitro assessment of lysozyme controlled delivery.

Designing structure and morphology of macroporous hydrogels is crucial for their applications in controlled release systems of macromolecular drugs. Macroporous hydrogels, consisting of methacrylic acid (MAA) and either acryl amide (AAm) or 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) (1st network), were prepared for this purpose by cryogelation (single network cryogels, SNCs). Macroporous interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogel composites were then prepared by a sequential strategy, the 2nd network consisting of chitosan (CS) cross-linked with poly(ethyleneglycol) diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE) being generated by the sorption of a CS and PEGDGE mixture in the 1st network followed by cross-linking. A strong difference in the behavior of SNCs and IPN hydrogel composites was found during the loading and release of lysozyme (LYS) used as macromolecular drug model. Thus, while the amount of LYS loaded on SNCs was higher than that loaded on the IPNs, the release of LYS from SNCs occurred at pH 2, when the ratio between MAA and AAm was 50:50, and only at pH 1 when the ratio between MAA and AAm was 70:30. The 2nd network led to the decrease of the pore size of the IPNs, mainly when the initial concentration of monomers was 10wt/v%, but the presence of CS facilitates the LYS release from IPNs, mainly at a concentration of monomer of 5wt/v%, and when HEMA was used as nonionic comonomer.