Background: Bioactive glass has attracted substantial interest in orthopedics, but it has been less explored as a drug carrier. This study investigated the bovine serum albumin (BSA) release from bioactive 13-93B0 and 13-93B3 glasses.
Methods: Glass disks (13-93B0 and 13-93B3; n = 5) were loaded with 4 mg of BSA and coated under different chitosan-coating conditions. The amount of BSA released in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was evaluated, and a degradation study was performed to find out the weight loss and pH of PBS. Secondary structures of BSA on 13-93B0 were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.
Results: One hundred percent protein release occurred by 24 hours for all 13-93B3 groups. However, chitosan coating delayed 100% release up to 72 hours in 13-93B0 groups. The 13-93B3 glass showed higher degradation rates than 13-93B0 regardless of chitosan-coating status. Multilayer and sandwich chitosan coatings further delayed BSA release from 13-93B0. FTIR analysis revealed that α-helical structure was the highest among all groups and significantly higher in the 2% sandwich chitosan coating group (32.0% ± 2.1%), compared with uncoated and 4% chitosan groups.
Conclusions: Chitosan coating can delay the burst release of BSA from 13-93B0 glass and be a potential coating on bioactive glass for drug delivery purposes.