Telmisartan loaded polycaprolactone/gelatin-based electrospun vascular scaffolds

Abstract

Small diameter vascular grafts are frequently used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this study is to design electrospun telmisartan (TEL)-loaded polycaprolactone/gelatin (GEL) based vascular scaffold prototypes. A series of drug-free and TEL-loaded scaffolds were electrospun. When best formulations considered, mean fiber diameters were found as 1,133 and 1,120 nm, contact angles were found as 0° and 110° for drug-free and TEL loaded formulation, respectively. Biaxial tensile strength, elongation at break, and Young modulus analyses were also performed. The results of the study proved that the scaffolds were found to be promising material for using human blood vessels.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Electrospinning
• gelatin
• telmisartan
• tissue engineering
• vascular scaffold

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Nobel Pharmaceuticals for their generous donation of TEL and X-ray diffraction analysis. We would also thank Inovenso Inc. for SEM imaging.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Gazi University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit under grant number 02/2019-04.