Shih-Jung Liu
Chang Gung University,Taiwan
Title: Repair of diabetic wound repair using biodegradable nanofibrous metformin-eluting membranes
Biography
Biography: Shih-Jung Liu
Abstract
This work developed biodegradable nanofibrous drug-eluting membranes that provided sustained release of metformin for repairing wounds associated with diabetes. To prepare the biodegradable membranes, poly-D-L-lactide-glycolide (PLGA) and metformin were firstly dissolved in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) and were spun into nanofibrous membranes by electrospinning. An elution method and an HPLC assay were utilized to characterize the in-vivo and in-vitro release rates of the pharmaceuticals from the membranes. The biodegradable nanofibrous membranes released high concentrations of metformin for more than three weeks. Moreover, nanofibrous metformin-eluting PLGA membranes were more hydrophilic and had a greater water-containing capacity than virgin PLGA fibers. The membranes also improved wound healing and re-epithelialization in diabetic rats relative to the control. The experimental results in this work suggest that nanofibrous metformin-eluting membranes were functionally active in the treatment of diabetic wounds and very effective as accelerators in the early stage of healing of such wounds.