A Study on Electrospun Nanofibrous Mats for Local Antibiotic Delivery

The demand for novel antibiotic-loaded electrospun nanofibrous structures has increased extremely in the recent years and has engaged the interests of scientists and engineers into a blend configuration of antibiotic drug and biocompatible polymers due to their unique applications in future of better therapeutic effect, reduced toxicity and sustained local antibiotic release over a period of time. One method to produce these antibiotic-loaded networks is by electrospinning process. However, it is very important to know structural characteristics and morphology of nanofibers for controlling the performance of the yields. In this paper, fabrication of electrospun nanofibers suited for antibiotic delivery system is investigated based on tetracycline hydrochloride as the antibiotic drug and poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) as the biodegradable polymeric matrix. Furthermore, the effect of material and process parameters on morphology and release behavior of produced nonwovens is investigated. The efficacy of the medicated scaffolds using a static system for bacterial growth on agar plates was also proved.