Highly Bioadhesive Polymer Membrane Continuously Releases Cytostatic and Anti-Inflammatory Drugs for Peritoneal Adhesion Prevention

Peritoneal adhesion is a complex fibrosis and inflammatory process, and it can be minimized by physical isolation by biomaterial membranes or treatment with cytostatic and/or anti-inflammatory drugs. However, the integration of physical isolation and pharmaceutical therapy in one platform faces many challenges. First, normal polymer antiadhesion membranes are hydrophobic and show low bioadhesion to the injured tissue, which decrease their efficacies. Second, the significantly different release behaviors of various drugs owing to their different hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties limit their synergistic effects. In this study, a highly bioadhesive polymer membrane formed by core-sheath nanofiber to integrate physical isolation and pharmaceutical treatment together for the synergistic prevention of peritoneal adhesion. 10-Hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) and diclofenac sodium (DS) were loaded in the sheath and core of nanofiber, respectively. The membrane was then treated by ultraviolet-ozone (UVO) for improvement of hydrophilicity and bioadhesion. Owing to the core-sheath structure, the two drugs both performed a sustained release behavior for the cytostatic and anti-inflammatory effects. The in vivo study demonstrated that the UVO-treated and dual-drug-coloaded membrane possessed the best antiadhesion capacity, indicating its potential clinical application.