Polycaprolactone nanofibers for the controlled release of tetracycline hydrochloride

Controlled delivery of drugs is one of the widely explored areas in biomedicine and healthcare. Biocompatible nanofibers are explored as potential drug delivery vehicles in recent years in the field of tissue engineering. The present study fabricated polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers with different concentrations of antibiotic drug tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) for the controlled drug delivery. Chloroform and methanol (3:1) used as the solvent system for the fabrication of PCL/TC nanofibers. The observed results showed that the PCL exhibited a transition from hydrophobic to hydrophilic state with time due to TC loading for the controlled release. Tetracycline hydrochloride (5%) drug loaded membranes showed the highest resistance to deformation, while 2% drug membrane had the highest tensile strength at 3.9 MPa. Porosity of the fibrous scaffolds increased with increase in concentration of the drugs. In vitro release studies of the drug analyzed by UV-Visible Spectrometry indicated the burst release of drug within the first hour observed minimum and was followed by sustained control release for a period of eight days. PCL loaded with TC shows the potential as promising substrate for drug delivery applications in biomedicine and healthcare.