%0 Book Section
%A Guerra, Giulio D.
%A Gagliardi, Mariacristina
%A Barbani, Niccoletta
%A Cristallini, Caterina
%B Recent Researches in Modern Medicine
%D 2011
%F eprints:3257
%I WSEAS
%P 210-217
%T Controlled Release of the Anti-cancer Drug Paclitaxel from Bioresorbable Poly(ester-ether-ester) Microspheres
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3257/
%X The release of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel (PTX) from microspheres of the bioresorbable poly(ε-caprolactoneoxyethylene-ε-caprolactone)tri-block copolymer was studied. The microspheres, both loaded and not with PTX, were prepared by emulsion-evaporation technique, then characterized by SEM, AFM, total reflection and spotlight FT-IR spectroscopy, and DSC. The quantities of PTX released were measured by HPLC. The results showed a slow and very regular release, which fits very well the Peppas equation, Mt/M∞ = k · t, where Mt is the amount of solute released at the time t, M∞ is the amount of drug released at the plateau condition, k represents the Peppas kinetic constant and n the diffusion order.