• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.821-828
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• 2002

Regular and highly interconnected macroporous poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) scaffolds with pore size of 10∼300 ㎛ were fabricated through thermally induced phase separation of a PLLA-dioxane-water ternary system in the presence of a small amount of Pluronics. Addition of Pluronics to the ternary system raised the cloud-point temperature curve in the order of P-123< F-68< F-127. The Pluronics act as nuclei for the phase separation. This assistance is enhanced with increasing length of the hydrophilic PEO blocks in the Pluronics molecules. Liquid-liquid spinodal phase separation was induced at higher temperatures in the systems containing Pluronics because the spinodal region is raised to higher temperature. The absorption of Pluronics onto the interface stabilizes a macro scale structure and increases the interconnection of pores.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.255-261
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• 2010

Pluronic as pharmaceutical excipients are listed in the US and British Pharmacopoeia. In particular, Pluronics exist as different compositions and display abundant phases as self-assembling into polymeric micelles with various morphologies depending on the aqueous solvent quality, the composition of structure, and hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB). Pluronics were also known as a P-gp modulator, which was exploited as a reversal molecule of multi-drug resistant (MDR) cancers. We selected a lamella forming Pluronic L92 which has high hydrophobicity and relatively long PEO block among L series of Pluronics. The dispersion of L92 showed great size particles and low stability. To increase the stability and to decrease the particle size, secondary Pluronics (F68, F88, F98, F127, P85, P105, and P123) with relatively long PEO chain were added into 0.1 wt% Pluronic L92 dispersion. The stability of binary systems was increased due to incorporated long PEO chain. Their particle sizes slightly decreased to over 200~400 nm and their solubilization capacity of binary systems didn't change except Pluronic L92/P123 mixtures. The L92/P123 systems showed ca. 100 nm sizes and lowest turbidity among the all systems. The solubilization capacity of 0.1 wt% L92/0.1 wt% P123 was slightly increased compared to 0.1 wt% L92 mono system and other binary systems. These nano-sized binary systems may have potential as alternative drug delivery systems with simple preparation method and overcome the drawbacks of mono systems such as low stability and loading capacity.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.180-180
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• 2006

A novel preparation method for core/shell nanoparticles with protein drug-loaded lipid core was designed and characterized. The lipid core is composed of lecithin and protein drug and the polymeric shell is composed of Pluronics (poly (ethylene oxide)-poly (propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer, F-127 For the application of core/shell nanoparticles as a protein drug carrier, lysozyme and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) were loaded into the core/shell nanoparticles by electrostatic interaction and the drug release pattern was observed by manipulating the polymeric shell.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2014

In this study, the silica nanoparticles were considerably chosen to improve a dimensional stability, proton transport and electrochemical performance of the resulting inorganic-organic nanocomposite membranes. For this purpose, hydrophobic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 812, Degussa) and hydrophilic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 380, Degussa) nanoparticles were, respectively, introduced into a Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) polymer matrix. The $SiO_2$ particles are evenly dispersed in a SPAES matrix by the aid of a non-ionic surfactant (Pluronics$^{(R)}$ L64). A $SiO_2$ content plays an important role in membrane microstructures and membrane properties such as proton conductivity and water uptake. Therefore, to study nanocomposite membranes with excessive amount of silica, the content of silica nanoparticles were increased up to 5 wt%. Interestingly, a hydrophobic $SiO_2$ containing nanocomposite membrane showed better electrochemical performance (29% higher than pristine SPAES) despite of low proton conductivity due to its adhesive properties with a catalyst layer in a single cell test. All the silica-SPAES membranes exhibited better performance than a pristine SPAES membrane.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.87-92
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• 1998

Kojic acid (KA) is an antimelanogenic agent which has been widely used in cosmetics to whiten the skin color. However, it has the drawbacks of the skin irritancy and the instability against the pH, temperature, and light. In order to overcome these problems, various topical gels and multiple emulsion creams which can control the release of active ingredient, KA, were formulated employing cream bases of mineral oil with caprylic capric triglyceride and hydrophilic polymers such as chitosan, carbopol. and pluronics. Using Franz diffusion cells mounted with a synthetic cellulose membrane (MWCO 12,000), drug release characteristics of the formulations were evaluated by the HPLC assay of KA concentration in the receptor compartment of pH 7.4 phosphate buffered saline solution. Drug release from chitosan-based gels (ChitoGel) obeyed to the first order kinetics with a rapid release especially in the initial period. However, pluronic-based gels (PluGel) and carbopol-based gels (CarboGel) revealed controlled release of drug to some extent, followed by the square root-time kinetics. Moreover, the release of KA was further controlled with the W/O/W multiple emulsion creams (MultiCream), showing the apparent zero order release kinetics by virtue of dynamic ratecontrolling membrane of the oil layer. The flux $(J,\;{\mu}g/cm^2/hr)$ of ChitoGel. CarboGel. PluGel. and MultiCream in the initial period of 6hr were 73.30, 28.67. 24.04 and 7.72, respectively. On the other hand, the skin irritancy score of ChitoGel and MultiCream were observed as 2.5 and 2.3 respectively, in the rabbit skin irritation test. Although there were insignificant differences at p<0.05 between those formulations, it was possible to conclude that the W/O/W multiple emulsion creams containing KA might be a good candidate for an antimelanogenic drug delivery system due to the controlled release of acidic drug molecules.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.213-217
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• 2007

It has been reported that hydrophobic additives generally decrease the release rate of protein drugs from drug delivery systems (DDS) and hydrophilic additives increase the release rate. In many cases, however, the addition of hydrophilic molecule is necessary for improving the stability of protein drugs. In the present work, the effects of hydrophilic additives on the release profiles, and micelle formation of protein drug formulations were investigated to develop a novel method for protein drug delivery. For model protein drug, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was employed and several hydrophilic additives were used in the release experiments. Hydrophilic additive D-sorbitol showed the lower release rates of BSA than other hydrophobic additives due to the gel strengthening ability of the additive and the optimum concentration of D-sorbitol was 3 w/v % for the retarded release rate. In addition, it was found that the addition of D-sorbitol was very effective for obtaining homogeneous and stable DDS. The results were discussed in terms of the micelle formation and the micelle structure, i.e., the differences in gel structure and the distribution of drugs in micelles.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.585-592
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• 2015

The objective of this study is to determine if when chymopapain is loaded onto a nano-carrier, an injection of it reduces the spreading range of the drug within the discs. The materials for the experiment, which were conducted for three weeks, included fifteen intervertebral discs taken from two cadavers, which were divided according to the types of injected chymopapain solutions as follows: ordinary chymopapain group and nano-carrier system group. The nano-carrier system group was again divided into two subgroups according to the types of pluronics, the basic material for the nano-carriers: Pluronic F 127(DA-PF 127) in the nano-carrier group and Pluronic F 68(DA-PF 68) in the nano-carrier group. The results showed that the action of chymopapain using a pluronic-based nano-carrier system was localized around the center of the injection site instead of broad spreading, compared to that of the ordinary chymopapain group (p<0.01). This characteristic suggests a possible application to effective agents for minimally invasive spinal treatment through which disc lesions were removed selectively.