Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Piazza dell'Ospitale 1, 34129 Trieste, Italy.
Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Via Alfonso Valerio 6/1, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Jun 22;14(24):27599-27612. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c04849. Epub 2022 Jun 7.
The employment of coaxial fibers for guided tissue regeneration can be extremely advantageous since they allow the functionalization with bioactive compounds to be preserved and released with a long-term efficacy. Antibacterial coaxial membranes based on poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) and rifampicin (Rif) were synthesized here, by analyzing the effects of loading the drug within the core or on the shell layer with respect to non-coaxial matrices. The membranes were, therefore, characterized for their surface properties in addition to analyzing drug release, antibacterial efficacy, and biocompatibility. The results showed that the lower drug surface density in coaxial fibers hinders the interaction with serum proteins, resulting in a hydrophobic behavior compared to non-coaxial mats. The air-plasma treatment increased their hydrophilicity, although it induced rifampicin degradation. Moreover, the substantially lower release of coaxial fibers influenced the antibacterial efficacy, tested against , , and . Indeed, the coaxial matrices were inhibitory and bactericidal only against , while the higher release from non-coaxial mats rendered them active even against . The biocompatibility of the released rifampicin was assessed too on murine fibroblasts, revealing no cytotoxic effects. Hence, the presented coaxial system should be further optimized to tune the drug release according to the antibacterial effectiveness.
同轴纤维在引导组织再生中的应用具有极大的优势，因为它们可以保留生物活性化合物的功能化，并以长效的效果释放。本文合成了基于聚己内酯（PCL）和利福平（Rif）的具有抗菌作用的同轴膜，分析了将药物载入纤维核或壳层相对于非同轴基质的效果。因此，除了分析药物释放、抗菌效果和生物相容性外，还对这些膜的表面性质进行了表征。结果表明，同轴纤维中较低的药物表面密度阻碍了与血清蛋白的相互作用，导致其与非同轴纤维相比具有疏水性。空气等离子体处理增加了它们的亲水性，但诱导了利福平的降解。此外，同轴纤维中药物释放量的显著降低影响了其对抗 、 、 和 的抗菌效果。事实上，同轴基质仅对 具有抑制和杀菌作用，而非同轴纤维中较高的药物释放使得它们对 也具有活性。还评估了释放的利福平对小鼠成纤维细胞的生物相容性，未发现细胞毒性作用。因此，应进一步优化同轴系统，根据抗菌效果来调整药物释放。
