A novel self-assembled liposome-based polymeric hydrogel for cranio-maxillofacial applications: Preliminary findings

Soft nanogels are submicron-sized hydrophilic structures engineered from biocompatible polymers possessing the characteristics of nanoparticles as well as hydrogels, with a wide array of potential applications in biotechnology and biomedicine, namely, drug and protein delivery. In this work, nanogels were obtained using the physical self-assembly technique or 'layer-by-layer' which is based on electrostatic interactions. Liposomal vesicles were coated with alternating layers of hyaluronic acid and chitosan yielding a more viscous hydrogel formulation that previously reported core-shell nanoparticulate suspension, via simply modifying the physico-chemical characteristics of the system. Structural features, size, surface charge, stability and swelling characteristics of the nanogel were studied using scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. With a specific cranio-maxillofacial application in mind, the hydrogel was loaded with recombinant human (rh) bone morphogenetic protein-7, also known as osteogenic protein-1 or rhOP-1 and release was monitored over an extended period of 60 days. This preliminary study reports promising results on the formulation of a novel core-shell polymeric nanogel.