Design and production of 3D printed oral capsular devices for the modified release of urea in ruminants

GALLO, LOREANA; PEÑA, JUAN F.; PALMA, SANTIAGO D.; REAL, JUAN PABLO; COTABARREN, IVANA; COLANERI, DIEGO A.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2022 vol. 628

0378-5173

Aclaración: En esta publicación participe con los set de parámetros de impresión 3D y puesta a punto de los equipo. Estoy incluido en los agradecimientos: The authors also express their gratitude to Des. Teresa Dutari andEng. Diego Colaneri for their technical assistance.The use of 3D printing for the production of systems intended for oral delivery of diet supplements in the veterinary pharmacy constitutes an attractive technology that has remained unexplored. In this sense, this work studies the design and 3D printing of capsular devices that allow the modified release of urea, which is frequently used as a source of non-protein nitrogen in ruminants, but highly toxic if fast ingested. The devices were printed with combinations of polylactic acid (PLA, water-insoluble) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, water-soluble) in order to modulate the urea release through the different parts. The optimization of the designs as well as printing parameters such as extrusion temperature, printing speed, retraction distance and nozzle speed resulted critical to obtain successful capsular devices. In addition, the dissolution studies confirmed that the developed designs showed a controlled release of urea, especially the ones that presented internal partitions. Finally, Logistic and Weibull equations were the kinetic models that best fitted the experimental data corresponding to functions that describe S-shaped dissolution profiles. Overall, this work constitutes a proof of concept and provides the first steps in the development of 3D printed simple devices for the controlled release of supplements and drugs in veterinary pharmacy.