Preparation and swelling behavior of chitosan-based superporous hydrogels for gastric retention application

Chitosan and glycol chitosan hydrogels were prepared, and their swelling behaviors in acidic solution were studied to investigate their application for gastric retention device. The optimum preparation condition of superporous hydrogels was obtained from the gelation and blowing kinetics measured at varying acidic conditions. Both the swelling rate and swelling ratio of glycol chitosan hydrogels were higher than those of chitosan hydrogels. Swelling behaviors were significantly affected by not only foaming/drying methods but also crosslinking density, as the sizes and structures of pores generated were highly dependent on those preparation conditions. The prepared superporous hydrogels were highly sensitive to pH of swelling media, and showed reversible swelling and de-swelling behaviors maintaining their mechanical stability. The degradation kinetics in simulated gastric fluid was also studied.