Core/Shell Nanofibers with Embedded Liposomes as a Drug Delivery System

Abstract

The broader application of liposomes in regenerative medicine is hampered by their short half-life and inefficient retention at the site of application. These disadvantages could be significantly reduced by their combination with nanofibers. We produced 2 different nanofiber-liposome systems in the present study, that is, liposomes blended within nanofibers and core/shell nanofibers with embedded liposomes. Herein, we demonstrate that blend electrospinning does not conserve intact liposomes. In contrast, coaxial electrospinning enables the incorporation of liposomes into nanofibers. We report polyvinyl alcohol-core/poly-ε-caprolactone-shell nanofibers with embedded liposomes and show that they preserve the enzymatic activity of encapsulated horseradish peroxidase. The potential of this system was also demonstrated by the enhancement of mesenchymal stem cell proliferation. In conclusion, intact liposomes incorporated into nanofibers by coaxial electrospinning are very promising as a drug delivery system.

Liposomes in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

“…Another strategy to combine liposomes and nanofibres is to use coaxial electrospinning. This technique enables the incorporation of liposomes into nanofibres [128]. Table 3 shows the applications of liposomes combined with scaffolds for TE approaches.…”

Significant improvement of biocompatibility of polypropylene mesh for incisional hernia repair by using poly-ε-caprolactone nanofibers functionalized with thrombocyte-rich solution

“…41 Briefly, the stereological parameters were measured from arbitrarily selected sections of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, using Ellipse software (v 2001; ViDiTo, Kosice, Slovak Republic). The distribution of the fiber diameters and pore sizes was determined quantitatively from 200 measurements.…”

Electrospun nanofibers of polyCD/PMAA polymers and their potential application as drug delivery system

“…In coaxial electrospinning, two different polymer solutions are simultaneously pumped through a coaxial capillary and the drug is directly incorporated in the core, which remains protected by the shell. Thus, the drug release depends on both the core/shell polymers, which might promote a higher delivery modulation [25,26]. Therefore, we report the preparation and characterization of uniaxial and coaxial PMAA/polyCD nanofibers for obtaining a more efficacious release system for the hydrophilic model drug, propranolol hydrochloride.…”