A method to fabricate porous spherical hydroxyapatite granules intended for time-controlled drug release

This study is aimed at the development of a method to fabricate porous spherical hydroxyapatite (HA) granules, which can be impregnated with a drug. These drug-loaded particles can be used as a system for targeted and time-controlled drug delivery, e.g. in bone surgery. The method to produce porous granules is based on liquids immiscibility effect. A suspension of HA powder in aqueous solution of gelatin and oil as a dispersion media were used. By stirring the mixtures of these immiscible liquids, granules of 50–2000 μm diameter can easily be produced. Dependence of the granules characteristics on the preparation route was studied. In vivo experiments were performed to simulate drug release kinetics from the granules to the blood of rats.