Article Cite This: ACS Appl. Bio Mater. 2019, 2, 2766−2779
www.acsabm.org
Development of a Long-Term Drug Delivery System with Levonorgestrel-Loaded Chitosan Microspheres Embedded in Poly(vinyl alcohol) Hydrogel Jingjunjiao Long,† Alaitz Etxabide Etxeberria,†,‡ Caroline Kornelsen,§ Ashveen V. Nand,∥ Sudip Ray,⊥ Craig R. Bunt,# and Ali Seyfoddin*,†,∇
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Drug Delivery Research Group, School of Science, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1142, New Zealand ‡ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Engineering College of Gipuzkoa, BIOMAT Research Group, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia-San Sebastian 48080, Spain § Department of Chemistry, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas 72204, United States ∥ Health and Community, and Environmental and Animal Sciences Network, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland 1142, New Zealand ⊥ MBIE Biocide Toolbox and NZProduct Accelerator Programmes, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand # Department of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Canterbury 7647, New Zealand ∇ School of Interprofessional Health Studies, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand ABSTRACT: This study reports on the fabrication of a controlled release system for the delivery of levonorgestrel (LNG) for long-term contraception. LNG was encapsulated in chemically cross-linked chitosan (CS) microspheres, and microspheres presented a spherical geometry with a good particle size distribution (polydispersity index (PDI) < 0.1). The LNG-CS microspheres were classified based on their particle size range,
