Development of air-jet spun PHBV/PCL composite scaffolds for wound healing applications

Abstract

Delay in the healing of chronic wounds is one of the major problems causing individuals to lose their lives and which also becomes a severe burden on the nation's healthcare. Nanotechnology has allowed the development of low-priced wound covering materials, like nanofibrous materials, that have high surface-to-to-volume ratios to be made in wide varieties of shapes and sizes. The first aim of this research is to find the best PHBV/PCL blend ratio for fabricating fibrous mats through air-jet spinning for wound healing applications. Different ratios of PHBV and PCL (100 % PCL, 30/70, 50/50, 70/30, 100 % PHBV) were investigated for this reason. SEM data shows that the fiber diameters varied in the sub-nanometer scale. The crystallinity of the fibers increased as the PCL content increased, according to the XRD data. In comparison to pure PHBV and PCL, PHBV/PCL 50/50 demonstrated better combination of cell proliferation and mechanical strength than pure PHBV. The second aim is to study the effect of incorporating curcumin as an active agent into the optimized blend on wound healing. The optimized PHBV/PCL composition was mixed with different curcumin concentrations (0.5, 1, 2, 3 & 5 %). On the loaded fibers, physio-mechanical characterizations were performed to assess the impact of nanoparticle incorporation. Also, the cytotoxicity and cell migration studies were carried out to find out the cell proliferation activity. Our findings indicate that 0.5 % curcumin-loaded PHBV/PCL fibers have promising wound healing potential