Bioadhesive drug delivery systems are the most widely used approach which aims to provide high drug concentrations in the oral cavity for a long period of time. A formulation which has been designed for buccal application must exhibit acceptable mechanical characteristics. Texture profile analysis is a method which determines the mechanical properties of polymeric systems. The aim of this study was to develop different buccal gel formulations with several bioadhesive polymers for oral mucosal ulcerations as an alternative to commercial product and to compare the effect of bioadhesive polymers on the mechanical and textural properties of the gel formulations. For these purposes, the gel formulations containing Triamcinolone acetonide were prepared by using Polaxamer 407, Carbopol 934, chitosan and HPMC. All the developed formulations were compared with commercial product which is containing 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide (Kenacort-A Orabese®). According to the results, it was observed that the bioadhesive properties of the formulations depends on the bioadhesive polymer concentration and molecular weight of chitosan. It was also noted that, the bioadhesive performance of the chitosan based formulations was improved with HPMC. Texture profile analysis (TPA) results indicated that mechanical properties of the developed gels are more suitable than the commercial product.
Keywords: Triamcinolone acetonide, Bioadhesion, Buccal gel, Mechanical properties, Texture profile analysis (TPA)