Controlled Release of Antibiotics from Air Jet Spun Polycaprolactone Scaffolds

The multilayered scaffold technique for controlled drug release has gained considerable attention in recent times. Currently, the production of three-dimensional (3D) scaffold frequently uses 3D printing and electrospinning techniques. This study is aimed at developing polycaprolactone (PCL) fibrous scaffolds prepared using an air jet spinning (AJS) technique for controlled drug release. PCL has been widely studied for its biodegradability, drug permeability, and biocompatibility. We prepared 3D multilayered scaffolds comprising a PCL scaffold wrapped around a gelatin scaffold for controlled drug release. The characteristics of the 3D gelatin-PCL fibrous scaffolds were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). To evaluate the drug release properties, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and antibiotics epocelin and alporin were selected as model drugs. We used the prepared multilayered scaffolds to control antibiotic release and achieve the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for antibiotic susceptibility. We compared antibiotic-loaded gelatin scaffolds with gelatin-PCL multilayered scaffolds loaded with an antibiotic. Our results demonstrated that the antibiotic-loaded gelatin scaffold degraded rapidly and released its drug content at once. In contrast, the antibiotic-loaded gelatin-PCL multilayered scaffold exhibited controlled drug release properties and retained the antimicrobial activity over longer periods of time than the other formulation. Thus, our designed PCL-wrapped multilayered scaffolds have the potential to be effectively used for controlled drug release.