3D Printing of Progesterone-Loaded Intrauterine System Using Vat Photopolymerisation

Abstract

Three-dimensional printing (3DP)provides the opportunity to personalise different dosage forms and therapeutic regimenwhere conventional manufacturing processes might not be applicable. Limitedwork has been done to investigate using 3DP for personalising hormonal intrauterinesystems (IUSs). The aim of this work was to prepare 3DP IUS containing progesteroneusing vat photopolymerisation (VPP) technique. The device was successfullyprinted and showed a slow release in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). VPP has theadvantages of better printing resolution producing smoother surfaces, and theelimination of the pre-printing process of hot melt extrusion (HME) needed for fuseddeposition modelling (FDM) method. To the author’s knowledge, this is the firstreport of using VPP for printing hormone-loaded IUSs.@font-face{font-family:"Cambria Math";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face{font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:swiss;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-469750017 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:0cm;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}