Supercritical technology applied to the development of drug delivery systems for bone regeneration

Bone is the second most transplanted tissue, only behind blood transfusions, with over 2 million of procedures worldwide each year. This number is expected to increase, given that ageing is a risk factor for fractures and fracture delayed union and non-union, that currently reach up to 10 % of cases. Different approaches have been proposed with the purpose of obtaining synthetic scaffolds that can be used as bone grafts. In this Thesis, supercritical fluids were employed to optimize the preparation of synthetic scaffolds made of two biocompatible and biodegradable polymers, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL), with the incorporation of aerogel microparticles and anti-inflammatories as bioactive compounds in order to improve their properties for their application as bone grafts. The scaffolds were tested regarding their textural, phisicochemical and mechanical properties, degradation rates, drug release profiles, stability in storage and performance in an animal model

Traducindo a James Joyce: coloquialismos, vulgarismos e expresións culturais e idiomáticas nas versións galegas e castelás de ‘Ulysses’

[Abstract] James Joyce’s Ulysses narrates the story about a day in the life of the two main characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom. Despite being a complex reading, this novel was translated into a lot of languages. This dissertation will deal about the act of translating, the difficulties that appear during that process and finally there will be a study of the colloquialisms, vulgarisms and idiomatic and cultural expressions in the Spanish and Galician versions of Ulysses. I will especially focus on the Galician translation, which is the most recent one. To be more specific this dissertation will focus on episode 18 of Ulysses, also known as Penelope.Traballo fin de mestrado (UDC.FIL). Estudos ingleses avanzados e as súas aplicacións. Curso 2013/201

Solvent-Free Processing of Drug-Loaded Poly(ε-Caprolactone) Scaffolds with Tunable Macroporosity by Combination of Supercritical Foaming and Thermal Porogen Leaching

Demand of scaffolds for hard tissue repair increases due to a higher incidence of fractures related to accidents and bone-diseases that are linked to the ageing of the population. Namely, scaffolds loaded with bioactive agents can facilitate the bone repair by favoring the bone integration and avoiding post-grafting complications. Supercritical (sc-)foaming technology emerges as a unique solvent-free approach for the processing of drug-loadenu7d scaffolds at high incorporation yields. In this work, medicated poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds were prepared by sc-foaming coupled with a leaching process to overcome problems of pore size tuning of the sc-foaming technique. The removal of the solid porogen (BA, ammonium bicarbonate) was carried out by a thermal leaching taking place at 37 °C and in the absence of solvents for the first time. Macroporous scaffolds with dual porosity (50–100 µm and 200–400 µm ranges) were obtained and with a porous structure directly dependent on the porogen content used. The processing of ketoprofen-loaded scaffolds using BA porogen resulted in drug loading yields close to 100% and influenced its release profile from the PCL matrix to a relevant clinical scenario. A novel solvent-free strategy has been set to integrate the incorporation of solid porogens in the sc-foaming of medicated scaffoldsThis research was funded by Xunta de Galicia [ED431F 2016/010; ED431C 2020/17], MCIUN [RTI2018-094131-A-I00], Agencia Estatal de Investigación [AEI] and FEDER funds. C.A. García-González acknowledges to MINECO for a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship [RYC2014-15239]. V. Santos-Rosales acknowledges to Xunta de Galicia (Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria) for a predoctoral research fellowship [ED481A-2018/014]S