Hydrogels and drug delivery

Recent developments include the use of water-swollen, crosslinked biomedical polymers as carriers for the delivery of drugs, peptides and proteins, as targeting agents for site-specific delivery, or as components for preparation of protein or enzyme conjugates. The network structure and the thermodynamic nature of the components of these networks play a key role in their diffusional behavior, molecular mesh size changes (especially in environmentally responsive hydrogels), and the associated molecular stability of the incorporated bioactive agents.