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Repanas et al. 2015.pdf (1.02 MB)

Coaxial electrospinning as a process to engineer biodegradable polymeric scaffolds as drug delivery systems for anti-inflammatory and anti- thrombotic pharmaceutical agents

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-03-01, 14:28 authored by Alexandros Repanas, Willem F. Wolkers, Oleksandr Gryshkov, P. Kalozoumis, Marc Mueller, Holger Zernetsch, Sotiris KorossisSotiris Korossis, B. Glasmacher
Objective: Blend electrospinning has been acknowledged as a cost-effective technique for the production of fibrous scaffolds, suitable for various biomedical applications. Coaxial electrospinning is a method variant that results in core-shell structures with advantages, such as delayed diffusion and protection of sensitive biomolecules. The aim of this work was to evaluate how different process and solution parameters affect the structural, mechanical and physical properties of the fibers, created by polycaprolactone (PCL). In addition, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) that was used as a model anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic agent, was loaded within the fiber meshes in order to compare release kinetics between fibers produced by conventional blend and coaxial electrospinning. Methods: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the structural and morphological characteristics of the fibers. The fibers’ hydrophilicity was investigated using contact angle measurements while the electrical conductivity of the polymeric solutions and the thermal properties of the fibers were also evaluated. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to determine the fibers’ melting point and mechanical tensile tests were performed in order to study the mechanical properties of the fibers. Moreover, UV-vis spectroscopy was used to determine the release kinetics of ASA. Results: The results indicated that increasing the concentration of PCL led to thicker and less aligned fibers. Furthermore, the physicochemical characterization did not reveal significant changes during the process. Coaxially electrospun fibers that were loaded with ASA exhibited a slower and sustained, biphasic release profile compared to blend electrospun fibers with 34% of ASA released during the first 8h and 97% in total after 3 months. Conclusion: Taken together, fibrous meshes created by coaxial electrospinning using PCL, can be tailor-made by a careful optimization of all the process and solution parameters, in order to fit the scope of specific applications in the fields of biomedical engineering and drug delivery.

Funding

This research was granted by the German Research Foundation (DFG) by the Cluster of Excellence REBIRTH (From Regenerative Biology to Reconstructive Therapy, DFG EXC 62/1).T

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology

Volume

05

Issue

05

Citation

REPANAS, A. ... et al., 2015. Coaxial electrospinning as a process to engineer biodegradable polymeric scaffolds as drug delivery systems for anti-inflammatory and anti- thrombotic pharmaceutical agents. Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology, 05: 192.

Publisher

© the Authors. Published by OMICS Publishing Group

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Omics under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

eISSN

2161-1459

Language

  • en