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Hydrogels in pharmaceutical formulations
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Abstract
The availability of large molecular weight protein- and peptide-based drugs due to
the recent advances in the field of molecular biology has given us new ways to treat
a number of diseases. Synthetic hydrogels offer a possibly effective and convenient
way to administer these compounds. Hydrogels are hydrophilic, three-dimensional networks,
which are able to imbibe large amounts of water or biological fluids, and thus resemble,
to a large extent, a biological tissue. They are insoluble due to the presence of
chemical (tie-points, junctions) and/or physical crosslinks such as entanglements
and crystallites. These materials can be synthesized to respond to a number of physiological
stimuli present in the body, such as pH, ionic strength and temperature. The aim of
this article is to present a concise review on the applications of hydrogels in the
pharmaceutical field, hydrogel characterization and analysis of drug release from
such devices.