Abstract:
Resealed erythrocytes, as drug delivery system has tremendous potential to achieve site specificity and
prolonged release of drug thereby enhancing therapeutic index and patient compliance. In the present
investigation erythrocytes obtained from healthy volunteers were loaded with prednisolone using preswell
dilution and dilution technique with two different cross-linking agents, glutaraldehyde and dimethylsulphoxide.
Carrier erythrocytes, having acceptable loading parameters showed increased percentage drug content with the addition of cross-linking agents. In vitro drug release followed zero-order kinetics, haemoglobin content was found to be satisfactory and osmotic fragility study indicated that increased drug entrapment efficiency was
found at 0.3%w/v concentration of sodium chloride (hypotonic solution). In vivo tissue distribution studies were
carried out for optimized formulation and order of distribution was found to be Liver>Lung>Kidney> Spleen.
The developed drug delivery system is endowed with several exclusive advantages and hence holds potential
for further research and clinical application.
