Surface wetting driven release of antifibrotic Mitomycin-C drug from modified biopolymer thin films

We demonstrate that Nature-inspired lotus-like non-wetting phenomena can also be used in the field of controlled drug delivery. Hydrophobically modified, and cellulose microparticle roughened polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) biopolymer based thin films were synthetised and converted into superhydrophobic (Θ = 165.3°; γstot = 1.7 ± 0.67 mJ/m2) thin films. The surface wetting of the thin films was adjustable from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic nature and this affected the drug release properties as well. We also prove that this surface wetting driven drug delivery system (DDS) is suitable for the encapsulation and prolonged/adjusted release of Mitomycin (MMC), a drug with antifibrotic properties. The in vitro release experiments conducted under physiological conditions (PBS, pH = 7.4) revealed that –due to the lower crystallinity– the release of MMC was faster (k′ = 6.1 × 10−6 mM/s) from the hydrophilic film compared to the pure, crystalline (k′ = 1.21 × 10−6 mM/s) MMC. Neverteless, significantly lower MMC dissolution rate (k′ = 5 × 10−8 mM/s) was obtained for the superhydrophobic sample featuring a non-wetting, lotus-like nature. Based on this in vitro study, we suggest that the presented surface wetting driven DDS loaded with MMC could be useful for example in the area of head and neck surgeries to prevent scar tissue formation.