Experimental and numerical evaluation of drug release from nanofiber mats to brain tissue

Drug delivery systems based on nanofibrous mats appear to be a promising healing practice for preventing brain neurodegeneration after surgery. One of the problems encountered during planning and constructing optimal delivery system based on nanofibrous mats is the estimation of parameters crucial for predicting drug release dynamics. This study describes our experimental setup allowing for spatial and temporary evaluation of drug release from nanofibrous polymers to obtain data necessary to validate appropriate numerical models. We applied laser light sheet method to illuminate released fluorescent drug analog and CCD camera for imaging selected cross-section of the investigated volume. Transparent hydrogel was used as a brain tissue phantom. The proposed setup allows for continuous observation of drug analog (fluorescent dye) diffusion for time span of several weeks. Images captured at selected time intervals were processed to determine concentration profiles and drug release kinetics. We used presented method to evaluate drug release from several polymers to validate numerical model used for optimizing nanofiber system for neuroprotective dressing.