Feasibility of simple chitosan sheet as drug delivery carrier

Chitosan, a biodegradable and biocompatible polysaccharide, is a potentially useful material in various fields. We developed a simple chitosan sheet and examined the possibility of using an adriamycin-containing chitosan sheet as a drug carrier for controlled release. To prepare a carrier consisting only of chitosan, a chitosan suspension was subjected to acid-alkaline treatment, mixed with adriamycin, frozen and freeze-dried. The adriamycin-containing chitosan sheet was inserted into the peritoneal cavity of mice in order to investigate its biodegradation. The appearance of decomposition of chitosan was observed using scanning electron microscopy, and adriamycin in urine and liver was detected for 1 and 2 weeks, respectively. Adriamycin metabolites were detected in plasma for 2 weeks. Furthermore, adriamycin remained in the chitosan sheet without being metabolized after 2 months. These results suggested that the chitosan sheet prepared in this study might improve therapeutic efficacy in topical lesions as a carrier of sustained-release drugs. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.