Emulsion Electrospinning of a Collagen‐Like Protein/PLGA Fibrous Scaffold: Empirical Modeling and Preliminary Release Assessment of Encapsulated Protein

Abstract

The effectiveness of a multifunctional scaffold produced by the electrospinning of emulsions composed of organic PLGA and aqueous collagen-like protein (denoted as Fol-8Col) solutions is demonstrated. The resultant Fol-8Col/PLGA fibrous scaffolds with homogeneous morphology have mean fiber diameters from 600 to 2,000 nm. A uniform distribution of encapsulated Fol-8Col in the fibers is observed by fluorescence microscopy. TEM is used to clarify the representative core/sheath structure of emulsion electrospun Fol-8Col/PLGA fibers. Preliminary release assessment of encapsulated Fol-8Col shows results of sustained release for more than one month from the Fol-8Col/PLGA fibrous mats. The cytocompatibility of fibroblast cell line L929 with the fibrous composite seems promosing.

In Pursuit of Functional Electrospun Materials for Clinical Applications in Humans

“…One favorable advantage of emulsion electrospinning for drug delivery applications is the ability to solubilize drugs and polymer in separate solvent systems for drug and polymer combinations with different hydrophillicity [79]. Another application of emulsion electrospinning is in fabricating core-shell nanofibers from W/O or O/W emulsions, which have been used for delivery of bioactive proteins, sustained release of small molecules drugs and tissue engineering scaffolds [80][81][82][83][84][85]. The ratio of W/O solvent in these systems can be manipulated to span the fiber morphology design space, with an optimum W/O ratio resulting in nanofibers with a distinct core-shell morphology [86].…”

EGF-loaded nanofibrous scaffold for skin tissue engineering applications

“…To prepare water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion, span 80 (Sorbitan Monooleate) in a 5 wt% ratio to the polymer weight was added into the polymer solution and afterwards, EGF solution with a concentration of 0.1 wt% (with respect to PLGA mass) in phosphate buffer saline (PBS, 50 mM, pH 7.4, BSA 1 wt%) as the aqueous phase was added dropwise into the polymer solution under stirring at 1000 rpm. BSA can act as a protector of the growth factor [15] and span 80 is utilized as a non-ionic and non-toxic surfactant in order to stabilize the emulsion [16].…”

Nanofibers for ligament and tendon tissue regeneration

“…A schematic diagram of the electrospinning process and examples of nozzle and collector modification are shown in Figure 5.2. In this case, the amount of the core phase must be sufficient to form a stable, continuous core (Wei et al, 2011;Yarin, 2011). To obtain a nanofiber membrane containing multiple polymer phases, one can install multiple nozzles each containing a different polymer.…”