Preparation and evaluation of clindamycin phosphate loaded chitosan/alginate polyelectrolyte complex film as mucoadhesive drug delivery system for periodontal therapy

Abstract In this study, Clindamycin phosphate loaded adhesive polyelectrolyte complex films for local periodontal therapy were prepared with alginate and chitosan. The thickness, drug content, structure, swelling, adhesion and in vitro drug release with release kinetics of formulations were evaluated. The effects of the varying concentration and molecular weight of polymers used and the volume of the polymer solutions on the characteristics of the films were investigated. Increasing the concentration of sodium alginate in total content of polymer mixture caused to higher adhesiveness. Chitosan molecular weight also affected to adhesiveness of complex films. The release rate of drug and release kinetics was affected from the complexation. The best complexation was obtained with the three times higher concentration and volume of alginate in combination with low molecular weight chitosan. Thus polyelectrolyte films that have delayed release together with high swelling ability and adhesiveness and high drug content were formed. Due to the heterogeneous structure of complex film, the release profiles of the formulations fitted to the anomalous transport mechanism. 3D structure of the drug loaded complex film was analyzed by Micro-CT imaging in this study and it was showed that using this method would be very advantageous for further studies about the investigation of complexation than the other imaging methods in order to determine the volume and the size of the formed complexes within the structure at the same time.