Construction of Electrospun Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Nanofibers for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering Applications

Electrospun nanofibers hold a great potential in biomedical applications due to their advantages of large specific surface area, good biocompatibility, easy fabrication and surface modification. In particular, organic/inorganic hybrid nanofibers exhibit enhanced mechanical properties and long-term sustained release or controlled release profile of encapsulated drugs, which enables hybrid nanofibers to serve as desired platform for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. This review summarizes the recent progresses in the preparation, performances and applications of hybrid nanofibers as drug delivery vectors for antibacterial and antitumor therapy, and as nanofibrous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering or other types of tissue engineering applications. Nanofibers doped with various types of inorganic nanoparticles (e.g., halloysite, laponite(R), nano-hydroxyapatite, attapulgite, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, etc.) are introduced and summarized in detail. Future perspectives are also briefly discussed.