A novel treatment strategy for preterm birth: Intra-vaginal progesterone-loaded fibrous patches

Abstract

Progesterone-loaded poly(lactic) acid fibrous polymeric patches were created for the intra-vaginal application using electrospinning (ES) and pressurized gyration (PG) to prevent preterm birth with higher bioavailability. The patches were intravaginally inserted into the rats in the final week of their pregnancy, equivalent to the third trimester of human pregnancy. Maintenance tocolysis with progesterone-loaded patches was elucidated by recording the contractile response of uterine smooth muscle to noradrenaline in pregnant rats. Both progesterone-loaded patches indicated similar results from the release and thermal studies, however, patches obtained by ES had smaller average diameters and more uniform dispersion compared to PG. Patches obtained by PG had better results in production yield and tensile strength than ES; thereby PG is better suited for scaled-up production. The patches did not affect the cell attachment, viability and proliferation on Vero cells negatively. Consequently, progesterone-loaded patches are a novel and successful treatment strategy for preventing preterm birth.

Accelerated diabetic wound healing by topical application of combination oral antidiabetic agents-loaded nanofibrous scaffolds: An in vitro and in vivo evaluation study

“…The main parameters that affect the formation and homogeneity of nanofibrous scaffolds are ambient conditions such as temperature and humidity, process conditions such as working pressure and rotational speed for PG; working distance, polymer solution feed rate, applied voltage for electrospinning, solution properties such as viscosity, density, surface tension, and in addition for electrospinning, electrical conductivity. [47,48] These parameters were recorded for each solution (Table S1a).…”

A Comparison Study of Fiber Diameter's Effect on Characteristic Features of Donepezil/Curcumin‐Loaded Polycaprolactone/Polylactic Acid Nanofibers

“…The fact that PLA gave a few peaks that were not sharp has indicated that PLA is far from the crystalline structure. [ 39,40 ]…”

Recent applications of electrical, centrifugal, and pressurised emerging technologies for fibrous structure engineering in drug delivery, regenerative medicine and theranostics

“…More recently, progesterone loaded PLA scaffolds were fabricated for intra-vaginal therapy using both ES and pressurised gyration; with the latter engineering patches with superior tensile strength and production yield compared to ES. However, the ES process found to yield much thinner fibers (between average of 6.06 µm and 7.893 µm) [399].…”