Polylactic acid/silk fibroin composite hollow fibers as excellent controlled drug release systems

Abstract Polylactic acid (PLA) and silk fibroin (SF) have been widely used in biomedical applications because of their excellent biocompatibility and degradability. In this study, PLA and SF were used as raw materials to prepare hollow fibers with a skin‐core structure by wet spinning technology. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that the structure of hollow fibers became increasingly uniform with increasing silk fibroin mass fraction. Tensile test results showed that with the increase of silk fibroin content, the elastic modulus of hollow fibers decreased and their tensile properties improved. The results of hollow fibers degradation experiments revealed that increasing the content of silk fibroin can effectively shorten the degradation time of hollow fibers. Ultraviolet spectrophotometry was used to measure the absorbance of tetracycline hydrochloride in phosphate buffer saline and calculate its release rate in hollow fibers with different silk fibroin contents, the result is HFs‐9 > HFs‐7 > HFs‐0 > HFs‐5 > HFs‐3. The PLA/SF controlled drug release system has precise controlled release of the drug, realizes the separation of the drug from the controlled release system, and solves the problem of sudden drug release. In addition, the controlled release system is non‐toxic, degradable, and has excellent mechanical properties.