Seyyed Morteza Attari - Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Rana Imani - Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Sara Nejati - Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Ali Mohammad Sharifi - Razi Drug Research Center, Department of Pharmacology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Introduction Nowadays, tissue engineering has attracted considerable attention for treatment of bone defects. The key to success with utilization of small molecule-based drugs in combination with tissue engineering strategies, is designing suitable delivery systems to localize and sustain the controlled release of the small molecules to target sites. Recently, statins with high ability for osteoinduction and osteogenesis, have been widely considered to repair the bone defects. Objectives & Methods In this study, in order to achieve a controlled and sustained release of Atorvastatin from bone scaffolds, two particle-based delivery systems, including nanoniosomes and microspheres, were synthesized and compared. Nanoniosomes and gelatin microspheres loaded by Atorvastatin were prepared by thin-film hydration and single emulsion technique, respectively. To evaluate the effective loading concentration of Atorvastatin into the carriers, MTT assay was carried out against MG-63 cell line. The synthesized carriers’ characteristics, such as morphology, size and drug loading encapsulation were studied. Moreover, the release profiles were precisely evaluated over a period of 1-week. Results The results indicated the successful formation of relatively spherical niosomes and microsphere, with the average diameter of 351.8 nm and encapsulation efficiency of 81.34%, and 37.5 μm and 78.93%, respectively. Less burst release of gelatin microspheres in comparison to the niosomes was observed. However, niosomes were able to give longer sustained release than the gelatin microspheres. Furthermore, the MTT result showed the highest cell viability up to M of Atorvastatin. ConclusionAs conclusion, both synthetized carriers have potential to incorporate into the bone scaffolds regarding to the severity of the damage and the rate of repair.

Atorvastatin, Drug delivery systems, Osteogenic induction, Niosome, Gelatin microsphere