Effect of poly(ethylene glycol) on drug delivery, antibacterial, biocompatible, physico-chemical and thermo-mechanical properties of PCL-chloramphenicol electrospun nanofiber scaffolds

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) addition on physico-chemical, thermo-mechanical, drug release, antibacterial and biocompatible properties of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)-chloramphenicol (CAP) electrospun nanofiber scaffolds. Incorporation of PEG imparted enhanced hydrophilicity, crystallinity, glass transition temperature and cell growth ability and reduced cytotoxicity in PCL. In vitro drug release studies reveal that PEG addition in PCL-CAP facilitated well-defined release kinetics and the release profiles follow the Ritger–Peppas and Korsmeyer–Peppas model. The drug-loaded scaffolds showed antibacterial properties against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. Further, addition of PEG significantly improved the biocompatibility of the PCL-CAP scaffolds.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Antibacterial
• biocompatible scaffolds
• poly(ε-caprolactone)
• poly(ethylene glycol)
• sustained drug release

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr. Shubham Yerawar for assistance during scaffold preparation. GKA would like to gratefully acknowledge DIAT for providing his research scholarship. TUP would like to acknowledge financial the support from DIAT (DU).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).