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Editors Selection IGR 16-4

Surgical treatment: Drug-delivery implant

Comment by Tina Wong on:

57435 Evaluation of an injectable thermosensitive hydrogel as drug delivery implant for ocular glaucoma surgery, Xi L; Wang T; Zhao F et al., PLoS ONE, 2014; 9: e100632

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Hydrogel is a thermally-reversible gel that gels at body temperature. The F127 hydrogel is well-known and made from a PEG-PPG-PEG polymer and in this study the authors have 'extended' the PEG tails on either side to construct a hydrophobic biodegradable 'oligomer'. By making this extension, they seem to have developed a gel that can sustain release of MMC for several days, after an initial burst effect. There is no sustained release from the unmodified F127 gel. The authors' explanation is that the hydrophobic moiety achieves sustained release by 'holding on' to the MMC molecules.

The animal data report a prolonged survival of the bleb with an associated reduction in scar tissue formation as indicated by amount of collagen and myofibroblast population. Further studies will help determine the longer term safety of the gel in vivo. The idea of using the TMC-PEG-PPG-PEGTMC copolymer is an interesting concept, but since it is a 'new' material, it will need to undergo safety testing as required of any new material.

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