Controlled drug release from policaprolactone-piperine electrospun scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Polymeric drug scaffolds have been intensively studied in orthopedic surgery due to their capacity for the regimented and site-specific liberation of the therapeutic agent at the intended locus. In this context, electrospinning is a promising technique for producing scaffolds using biodegradable and biocompatible polymers. In the present study, scaffolds of Polycaprolactone (PCL) with Piperine (PIP) incorporated at different concentrations (1, 3, and 5 %) were obtained by electrospinning. The electrospun PCL, PCL/PIP 1 %, PCL/PIP 3 %, and PCL/PIP 5 % groups were analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy to identify the incorporated drug and through UV-VIS spectroscopy to evaluate its controlled release. In addition, the bone repair was verified by Raman spectroscopy using ᶹ1PO43- vibration data obtained by in vivo analysis. The morphology and diameter of the nanofibers were obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The PCL, PCL/PIP 1 %, PCL/PIP 3 %, PCL/PIP 5 % scaffolds had diameters of 0.0015 ± 0.002 μm, 1.08 ± 0.007 μm, 1.09 ± 0.02 μm, 0.59 ± 0.016 μm, respectively. Piperine release was pronounced after 15 days. Therefore, at 30 days, the PCL/PIP 1 % scaffold released 64 % ± 0.00062, while the PCL/PIP 3 % and PCL/PIP 5 % scaffolds released only 16.06 ± 0.00012 and 9.08 % ± 0.00031, respectively. This study provided evidence that PCL/Piperine can be used to significantly increase bone regeneration. Results from Raman spectroscopy and histological analysis demonstrated that the PCL/PIP 1 %, 3 %, and 5 % groups had better bone regeneration than the negative control group after 15 days and 30 days of treatment. The prolonged release of piperine promoted by PCL, a hydrophobic drug carrier, caused the neoformation of the bones to be restricted to the inner part of the bone defect, creating an immature bone with evident cellular differentiation.