Silk Fibroin Microparticles with Hollow Mesoporous Silica Nanocarriers Encapsulation for Abdominal Wall Repair

Abstract

Therapeutic vascularization appears to be an effective way of repairing abdominal wall defects. Attempts to implement this treatment tend to focus on the generation of featured drug carriers with the ability effectively to encapsulate the angiogenesis-stimulating agents and control their release to maintain an appropriate concentration at the injured area. Here, a new type of composite microparticle (CM) composed of silk fibroin (SF) and hollow mesoporous silica nanocarriers (HMSNs) is presented for therapeutic agent delivery. The CMs are generated by drying microfluidic emulsion templates of HMSN-dispersed SF solution. The resultant CMs have a distinctive micro-nanostructure, in which two barriers control the drug release. The encapsulated HMSNs increase the drug-carrying capacity of the CMs, and also form the first barrier via physical absorption. The microfluidic SF microparticles not only provide a shell with excellent monodispersity and biocompatibility but also form the second barrier via efficient encapsulation. Because of these superior properties of the CMs, the loaded drugs can be delivered with a satisfactory activity at the required rate, making them ideal for implementing therapeutic vascularization and repairing abdominal wall defects.

Keywords: abdominal wall repair; drug delivery; mesoporous; microfluidics; microparticles.