Fabrication of Ethosome-Loaded Silk Fibroin/Polyethylene Oxide Nanofibrous Mats by Green Electrospinning

Ethosomes are permeation-enhancing carriers, which significantly promote drug delivery into skin. Thus,the introduction of ethosomes into electrospun nanofibers may result in good effect on transdermal drug delivery. In this work,a novel ethosome-loaded silk fibroin( SF) /polyethylene oxide( PEO) composite nanofiber was fabricated based on a green electrospinning process. The ethosome-loaded SF /PEO nanofiber was round and smooth as shown by scanning electron microscopy( SEM),and the incorporation of ethosome didn’t significantly affect the morphology of the electrospun SF /PEO nanofiber. The data of Fourier transform infrares(FTIR)spectra suggested the existence of ethosome on the SF /PEO nanofiber and the transmission electron microscopy(TEM) clearly showed the distribution of ethosome on the ethosome-loaded SF nanofibers. This ethosome-loaded SF nanofibrous mat may have a promising application in transdermal drug delivery systems.