Preparation and characterization of drug-loaded coaxial electrospun nanofibers membranes with pH-responsive and antibacterial properties

Cardiovascular diseases pose a serious threat to human life and health. Vascular stent intervention surgery is currently the main method for treating cardiovascular diseases in the clinic, but the implantation of bare mental vascular stents can easily cause surgical infection. Fortunately, covering the surface of vascular stents with antibacterial membranes can effectively solve this problem. Therefore, in this work, an electrospun nanofibers membrane loaded with amoxicillin (AMX) was developed via coaxial electrospinning, and the release of AMX can be controlled by a pH-responsive process. The nanofibers (PEO-AMX/PCL-SF) had core-shell structures, with polyethylene oxide (PEO) containing AMX as the core layer and silk fibroin (SF) and polycaprolactone (PCL) as the shell layer. The weakly acidic environment caused by bacterial metabolism could cause the pH-responsive of SF in the nanofiber shell layer, resulting in the release of AMX in the core layer for antibacterial purposes. The PEO-AMX/PCL-SF nanofibers membrane exhibited excellent physicochemical properties, with a tensile strength of 3.25 ± 0.04 MPa and a water contact angle of 41.99 ± 1.43°. Furthermore, the membrane showed excellent pH-responsive drug release characteristics and antibacterial properties. In vivo and in vitro experiments suggested that the prepared nanofibers membrane has great biocompatibility and antibacterial properties, which has the potential to prevent and treat surgical infection after vascular stent implantation.