Preparation and in vitro evaluation of mucoadhesive properties of alginate/chitosan microparticles containing prednisolone

This study describes the preparation of mucoadhesive alginate/chitosan microparticles containing prednisolone intended for colon-specific delivery. Two methods have been used for the preparation of the particles: the one-step method is the method in which prednisolone was dispersed within sodium alginate solution and this dispersion was then dropped in a solution containing both calcium chloride and chitosan. The two-step method consisted also of the dispersion of prednisolone in alginate solution and then dropping this dispersion into a solution containing calcium chloride, the particles were then transferred to a chitosan solution. The concentration of sodium alginate solution at 2% (w/v), various concentrations of calcium chloride solution (0.5-1.0%, w/v), chitosan solutions (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%, w/v) and prednisolone drug load (2, 5, 10 and 15%, w/v) have been used. The results for both preparation methods show that the particle size and drug content were mainly depending on the amount of the drug concentration and not the amount of chitosan and calcium chloride. The in vitro mucoadhesive tests for particles prepared from both methods were carried out using the freshly excised gut of pigs. The particles prepared by the one-step method exhibited excellent mucoadhesive properties after 1h test. Increased chitosan concentrations from 0, 0.5, 1.0 to 1.5% (w/v) resulted in 43, 55, 82 and 88% of the particle remaining attached on the gut surface after 1 h, respectively. However, the particles prepared by the two-step method showed significant less mucoadhesion under the same experimental conditions. At chitosan concentrations of 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% (w/v) the amount of particles remaining attached to the mucosal surface of the pig gut after 1 h was 43, 3, 11 and 11%, respectively. The prednisolone release at a pH of 6.8 after 4 h was between 63 and 79% for the particles prepared by the one-step method and between 57 and 88% for the particles prepared by the two-step method with a prednisolone drug load of 5 and 10% (w/v), respectively. The results show that depending on the preparation method these chitosan coated alginate particles show different mucoadhesiveness whereas their other properties are not statistically significant different.