Injectable in situ forming drug delivery system based on poly(ε-caprolactone fumarate) for tamoxifen citrate delivery: Gelation characteristics, in vitro drug release and anti-cancer evaluation

The present study deals with the preparation and characterization of an injectable and in situ forming drug delivery system based on photocrosslinked poly(ε-caprolactone fumarate) (PCLF) networks loaded with tamoxifen citrate (TC). Networks were made of PCLF macromers, a photoinitiation system (comprising initiator and accelerator) and the active ingredient N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) as a crosslinker and reactive diluent. Shrinkage behavior, equilibrium swelling and sol fraction ratios of photocrosslinked PCLF gels were determined as functions of NVP content. It was shown that the crosslinking is facilitated up to a certain concentration of NVP and most of NVP remained unreacted above this value. In vitro drug release, biocompatibility evaluation and activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line were also investigated. Accurate but simple bipartite expressions were also derived that enable rapid determination of effective diffusion coefficients of TC in photocrosslinked PCLF/NVP disks. Cytotoxicity assay showed that while the photocrosslinked PCLF network with optimum NVP content exhibits no significant cytotoxicity against MCF-7 and L929 cell lines, 40–60% of the MCF-7 cells were killed after incubation with TC-loaded devices.