Conventional electrospinning vs. emulsion electrospinning: a comparative study on the development of nanofibrous drug/biomolecule delivery vehicles

Abstract

Over the past decade, intensive research has been conducted on electrospinning of fibrous tissue engineering scaffolds and their applications in body tissue regeneration. For providing multifunctions and/or enhancing the biological performance, drugs or biomolecules can be incorporated in electrospun fibers using normally one of these techniques: (1) direct dissolution, (3) emulsion electrospinning, and (3) coaxial electrospinning. In this investigation, for constructing nanofibrous delivery vehicles, conventional electrospinning using polymer solutions with directly dissolved drugs or biomolecules and emulsion electrospinning were studied and compared. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as a model protein and the drug was rifamycin, a hydrophobic antibiotic. A poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) containing the protein or drug was electrospun into fibers. In these two routes of fabricating drug-or biomolecule-loaded nanofibers, different polymer concentrations and emulsion formulations were investigated. Various aspects of the fibrous delivery vehicles were investigated using several techniques and the in vitro release behaviour was studied.