Novel Collagen Surgical Patches for Local Delivery of Multiple Drugs

Effectivecontrol of post-operative inflammation after tissue repairremains a clinical challenge. A tissue repair patch that could appropriatelyintegrate into the surrounding tissue and control inflammatory responseswould improve tissue healing. A collagen-based hybrid tissue repairpatch has been developed in this work for the local delivery of ananti-inflammatory drug. Dexamethasone (DEX) was encapsulated intoPLGA microspheres and then co-electrocompacted into a collagen membrane.Using a simple process, multiple drugs can be loaded into and releasedfrom this hybrid composite material simultaneously, and the ratiobetween each drug is controllable. Anti-inflammatory DEX and the anti-epilepticphenytoin (PHT) were co-encapsulated and released to validate thedual drug delivery ability of this versatile composite material. Furthermore,the Young's modulus of this drug-loaded collagen patch wasincreased to 20 KPa using a biocompatible riboflavin (vitamin B2)-inducedUV light cross-linking strategy. This versatile composite materialhas a wide range of potential applications which deserve explorationin further research.