Abstract The occurrence of gelation in certain crystallization systems is well known, but has rarely been used for fabricating drug-containing hydrogels with suitable properties such as controlled release. In this study, a novel gelation method using a drug was developed for the preparation of hydrogels with high drug contents of 60–90 wt% with easy drug loading onto the hydrogels. The antisolvent crystallization of atorvastatin (ATV) in the presence of polyacrylic acid (PAA) resulted in gelation without phase separation issues. On increasing the ATV/PAA ratio, the elastic modulus increased and the gelation time decreased, suggesting that the ATV crystallites act as physical crosslinks. The crystallinity and particle size of ATV and the release kinetics could be controlled over a wide window. This simple gelation technique could be useful in the future development of controlled release formulations via cost-efficient processes.

中文翻译：

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阿托伐他汀交联聚丙烯酸水凝胶

摘要 在某些结晶系统中凝胶化的发生是众所周知的，但很少用于制造具有适当特性（如控释）的含药水凝胶。在这项研究中，开发了一种使用药物的新型凝胶化方法，用于制备具有 60-90 wt% 高药物含量且易于将药物加载到水凝胶上的水凝胶。在聚丙烯酸 (PAA) 存在下，阿托伐他汀 (ATV) 的抗溶剂结晶导致凝胶化，没有相分离问题。随着 ATV/PAA 比率的增加，弹性模量增加，凝胶时间减少，表明 ATV 微晶起到物理交联的作用。ATV 的结晶度和粒径以及释放动力学可以在很宽的范围内进行控制。