Collagen Gels and Matrices for Biomedical Applications

Collagen represents one of the mostly used biomaterials due to its excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability properties. The obtaining of collagen based biomaterials as support for local release of a desired amount of drugs has as motivation their use in the treatment of various skin affections (sores, burns, infections produced by various bacteria) and of soft tissues (periodontal disease, dental extractions). Besides its function as release support, collagen acts as a biological dressing for tissue regeneration. The objective of this work is to obtain last generation local delivery systems containing two antimicrobial drugs in collagenic systems (gels and matrices) to control the drug release for the treatment of different specific diseases: doxycycline an antibiotic used especially for the treatment of periodontitic disease and tannic acid an antiseptic for wound treatment. The development of such drug delivery systems bring about both theoretical and practical contributions in the field of biomaterials used as locally controlled drug delivery systems. The biomaterials obtained in this work are in clinical trial being used in medicine and dentistry with good results.