Thermo-sensitive drug controlled release PLA core/PNIPAM shell fibers fabricated using a combination of electrospinning and UV photo-polymerization

In this research a thermo-sensitive drug loaded core–shell fibers were prepared by UV photo-polymerization combined with electrospinning technology. The biodegradable polymer polylactic acid (PLA) was used as the core with electrospinning and the N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) was selected to be shell of the fibers via UV photo-polymerization, respectively. Combretastatin A4 (CA4) was used as the model drug loaded in PLA (core structure) to test the thermo-sensitivity of the core–shell fibers. SEM was performed to observe the morphology of the fibers. TEM was carried out to confirm the core–shell structure of the fibers. Furthermore, XPS and FTIR results demonstrated that the core–shell structure had been fabricated as designed. Water contact angle (WCA) test indicated that the fibers show different wettability when the temperature was below or above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). Moreover, in vitro drug release test was conducted to explore the difference of the drug release when the temperature was at 25   °C and 40   °C. The cell culture studies showed that the prepared core–shell structure nanofibers have a potential application in the biomedical fields as tissue engineering.