Mucoadhesive hydrogels mucus

By definition, mucoadhesive hydrogels are a elass of polymeric biomaterials that exhibit the basic characteristic of an hydrogel to swell by absorbing water and interacting by means of adhesion with the mucus that covers epithelia. 

The eoneept of mueoadhesion in drug delivery was introduced in the field of controlled-release drug delivery systems in the early 1980s [2,3]. Thereafter, several researchers have focused on the investigations of the interfacial phenomena of mucoadhesive hydrogels (and of other type mucoadhesive compounds) with the mucus. Several techniques of studying these interactions were evaluated both in vitro and... 

Tensiometry Force required to dislodge two surfaces, one coated with mucus, the other solid dosage form consisting of mucoadhesive hydrogel... 

Mieroscopic visualization techniques have also been used to investigate mucus-polymer interactions [36-39]. Transmission electron microscopy was used by Fiebrig et al. [36], whereas different microscopical techniques were used by Lehr et al. [37] for the visualization of mucoadhesive interfaces. Transmission electron microscopy in combination with near-fleld Fourier transform infrared microscopy (FT-IR) has been shown to be suitable for investigating the adhesion-promoting effect of polyethyleneglycol added in a hydrogel [38]. Moreover, scanning force microscopy may be a valuable approaeh to obtain information on mueoadhesion and specific adhesion phenomena [39]. 

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