Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) plays a significant role in stimulating cell proliferation. It remains a challenge in the field of biomaterials to develop a carrier with the capacity of continuously releasing bioactive bFGF. In this study, porous bFGF-loaded silk fibroin (SF) microspheres, with inside-out channels, were fabricated by high-voltage electrostatic differentiation, and followed by lyophilization. The embedded bFGF exhibited a slow release mode for over 13 days without suffering burst release. SEM observations showed that incubated L929 cells could fully spread and produce collagen-like fibrous matrix on the surface of SF microspheres. CLSM observations and the results of cell viability assay indicated that bFGF-loaded microspheres could significantly promote cell proliferation during five to nine days of culture, compared to bFGF-unloaded microspheres. This reveals that the bFGF released from SF microspheres retained obvious bioactivity to stimulate cell growth. Such microspheres sustainably releasing bioactive bFGF might be applied to massive cell culture and tissue engineering as a matrix directly, or after being combined with three-dimensional scaffolds.
Keywords: basic fibroblast growth factor; controlled release; microspheres; silk fibroin.