The bioactivity studies of drug-loaded mesoporous silica-polydimethylsiloxane xerogels using FTIR and SEM/XEDS

The objective of this study was to evaluate the mineralization potential of bioactive drug-loaded mesoporous silica-polydimethylsiloxane xerogels under in vitro biomimetic condition. In this case, bioactivity is slightly connected with self-formation of carbonate hydroxyapatite (c-HAp) on xerogels surface. Carriers in the form of granules were prepared by using sol–gel method including drug loading – doxorubicin hydrochloride. The drug-loaded carriers were soaked in mineralizing solution with or without content of human albumin for 7, 14, 28 days to produce c-HAp. The mineral formation was measured using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The results show that the drug-loaded carriers could significantly mineralize in vitro: the mineralizing rates increasing with the time for which the samples were kept in the mineralizing solution. However, human albumin has significant retardative effect on apatite precipitation from SBF.