[Therapeutic systems and drug delivery. 4. The osmotic minipump]

For continuous delivery of substances to conscious experimental animals a miniature osmotic pump was developed. These pumps can be implanted subcutaneously or intraperitoneally. Then with self-powered force (osmosis) substance is released with constant rate over period of 1-4 weeks (model pending). These osmotic minipumps are widely used for investigation of various substances (e. g. anesthetics, anticancer agents, catecholamines, immunomodulators, peptides, steroids). By the means of osmotic minipumps until now more than 300 substances were applied and over 4,000 papers were published on the use of osmotic minipumps in pharmacology, toxicology, oncology, etc.