Fabrication of Drug Loaded Tissue Engineered Cornea with Collagen and Poly-lactic Glycolic acid (PLGA) Sandwich Hybrid Construct Electrospun Mat

This study aimed at fabricating a novel electrospun sandwich-structured polylactide–polyglycolide (PLGA)/collagen nanofibrous membranes. For the electrospinning of biodegradable membranes, PLGA/collagen and PLGA/ofloxacin were separately dissolved in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP). They were then electrospun into sandwich structured membranes, with PLGA/collagen for the surface layers and PLGA/OFL for the core layer. After electrospinning, various characterization studies were carried out for the prepared nanofibrous scaffold. The morphology of spun PLGA/collagen/OFL nanofibers was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The average diameter of electrospun nanofibers was 59 nm (range of 58–66 nm). The nature of the scaffold was determined by X-ray diffraction studies and rate of drug release was studied through in vitro activity. The experiment showed that biodegradable nanofibrous membranes released a sustainable concentration of drugs for a defined period of 8 hours. This would be a potential biomaterial in the field of corneal tissue engineering. The empirical results obtained from this study indicate that electrospun drug loaded sandwich PLGA/collagen nanofibers may be a good candidate for corneal damage.