Liposomes with Silk Fibroin Hydrogel Core to Stabilize bFGF and Promote the Wound Healing of Mice with Deep Second‐Degree Scald

Abstract How to maintain the stability of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in wounds with massive wound fluids is important to accelerate wound healing. Here, a novel liposome with hydrogel core of silk fibroin (SF‐LIP) is successfully developed by the common liposomal template, followed by gelation of liquid SF inside vesicle under sonication. SF‐LIP is capable of encapsulating bFGF (SF‐bFGF‐LIP) with high efficiency, having a diameter of 99.8 ± 0.5 nm and zeta potential of −9.41 ± 0.10 mV. SF‐LIP effectively improves the stability of bFGF in wound fluids. After 8 h of incubation with wound fluids at 37 °C, more than 50% of free bFGF are degraded, while only 18.6% of the encapsulated bFGF in SF‐LIP are destroyed. Even after 3 d of preincubation with wound fluids, the cell proliferation activity and wound healing ability of SF‐bFGF‐LIP are still preserved but these are severely compromised for the conventional bFGF‐liposome (bFGF‐LIP). In vivo experiments reveal that SF‐bFGF‐LIP accelerates the wound closure of mice with deep second‐degree scald. Moreover, due to the protective effect and enhanced penetration ability, SF‐bFGF‐LIP is very helpful to induce regeneration of vascular vessel in comparison with free bFGF or bFGF‐LIP. The liposome with SF hydrogel core may be a potential carrier as growth factors for wound healing.