Preparation And Characterization Of Multilayered Electrospun Composite Scaffolds For Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Electrospinning has gained wide attention recently in biomedical applications. Electrospun biocompatible scaffolds are well-known for biomedical applications such as drug delivery, wound dressing and tissue engineering applications. In this study, composites based electrospun polymer fibers Polycaprolactone (PCL) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was produced by using electrospinning technique in which multilayered structure (PCL-PVA-PCL) loaded with gentamicin sulphate (GS) (drug) in the middle layer with PVA. Formerly, metal silver particles were deposited on the surface of electrospun fibers using plasma sputtering technology. The electrospun scaffolds were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Water contact angle measurement, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The drug delivery of gentamicin sulphate from the multilayered electrospun PCL-PVA-PCL was investigated by using calorimetric method. The outcomes prove that, initial burst release of the drug could be reduced with the increase in the drug loading from 1% to 4%GS in the multilayered structure. Furthermore, the antibacterial properties of the sample were examined. The multilayered electrospun fiber loaded with drug and sputter coated with Ag has enhanced the antibacterial efficiency from the control. In addition, Biological performance such as cell cytotoxicity was investigated on the cell line fibroblast (Wi38) and human keratinocyte (HaCaT) by using alamar blue assay. The presence of Ag has revealed certain toxic effect with both cell line, and also the increase in the gentamicin concentration has also exhibited particular toxicity. Finally, In-vitro release of silver from the surface of the scaffold was inspected. The results show a uniform release of silver from the surface rather than initial burst release. Therefore, the formulated scaffolds are suitable candidate for biomedical application such as wound healing for prolonged antibacterial Inhibition through uniform release of drug as well as silver particles from the surface of the scaffolds.