Luminescent Eu3+/Tb3+ doped mesoporous bioactive glass nanofibers (MBGNFs) with average diameter of 100-120 nm were fabricated by electrospinning method. Pluronic P123 and N-cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) were used as co-surfactants to generate porous structure of the nanofibers. N-2 adsorption-desorption measurement reveals that the MBGNF:Eu3+ have a surface area of 188 m(2) g(-1), a pore volume of 0.246 cm(3) g(-1) and average pore size of 4.17 nm, and the MBGNF:Tb3+ have a surface area of 171 m(2) g(-1), a pore volume of 0.186 cm(3) g(-1) and average pore size of 3.65 nm. Photoluminescence measurements reveal that the MBGNF:Eu3+ show strong red emission dominated by the D-5(0) -> F-7(2) transition of Eu3+ at 614 nm with a lifetime of 1.356 ms, and MBGNF:Tb3+ show strong green emission dominated by the D-5(4) -> F-7(5) transition of Tb3+ at 544 nm with a lifetime of 1.982 ms. The biocompatibility tests on L929 fibroblast cells using MIT assay reveal low cytotoxicity of MBGNF. These luminescent nanofibers show sustained release properties for ibuprofen (IBU) in vitro. The emission intensities of Eu3+ in the drug delivery system vary with the released amount of IBU, thus making the drug release be easily tracked and monitored by the change of the luminescence intensity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.