Fabrication and Characterization of Biodegradable Nanofiber Containing Insulin

Biodegradable nanofibrous matrix containing insulin was fabricated by simple electrospinning method. The electrospun poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide)(PLGA)/Insulin nanofiber structure revealed randomly aligned fibers with average diameter of 700 nm determined and calculated by SEM and image analyzer. AIR-FTIR and ESCA mesurement were used to confirm the presence of insulin in PLGA/Insulin nanofibers. PLGA nanofibers were degraded slowly in phosphate buffer solution and 50 days were required to degrade completely. A 50% of insulin incorporated to PLGA nanofibers was released within 1 day of incubation, and then remained insulin in nanofibers were released slowly to 40 days of incubation. Human fibroblasts' behavior on PLGA/Insulin nanofibrous matrices has been investigated. Fibroblasts were well attached and proliferated faster on the surface of PLGA/Insulin nanofibers than on control PLGA nanofibers, due to the strong cell proliferating effect of insulin, which is one of the growth factors. From the above results, electrospinning of PLGA with insulin is a promising method for application to cell culture matrices.