Abstract
It is well known that periodontitis causes rapid destruction of gingival and bone tissues. Topical treatments are suitable because the drug can be delivered in a proper and controlled concentration. Metronidazole proved to be efficient for patients with aggressive periodontitis. By this study we aimed to obtain spongious drug delivery systems for local periodontitis treatment based on collagen, strontium renalate and metronidazole. Collagen spongious forms were obtained by lyophilisation of composite gels based on collagen:strontium ranelate (50:50) and different concentrations of metronidazole. The obtained spongious forms were characterized by FT-IR, water up-take, optic microscopy and in vitro release of metronidazole. The prepared matrices absorbed a maximum amount of water after 30 min. The most absorbent sample is the reference one (only collagen) which absorbed about 35% water; the adding of metronidazole decrease the water absorption due to its lipophilic behavior. The samples with strontium are more compact and they absorbed less water than the ones without strontium. Because the samples were not cross-linked they degrade during 24 hours of water absorption process. The drug percentage released was influenced by the drug and strontium ranelate concentrations. The analysis performed sponges indicate that these composites can be useful as drug delivery supports.
Keywords: collagen; metronidazole; strontium ranelate; drug release