Alginate-Based Electrospun Membranes Containing ZnO Nanoparticles as Potential Wound Healing Patches: Biological, Mechanical, and Physicochemical Characterization

Abstract

In the present work, alginate-based mats with and without ZnO nanoparticles were prepared via an electrospinning technique and subjected to a washing-cross-linking process to obtain highly stable products characterized by thin and homogeneous nanofibers with a diameter of 100 ± 30 nm. Using a commercial collagen product as control, the biological response of the prepared mats was carefully evaluated with particular attention paid to the influence of the used cross-linking agent (Ca2+, Sr2+, or Ba2+ ions) and to the presence of nanofillers. Fibroblast and keratinocyte cultures successfully proved the safety of the prepared alginate-based mats, whereas ZnO nanoparticles were found to provide strong antibacteriostatic and antibacterial properties; above all, the strontium- and barium-cross-linked samples showed performances in terms of cell adhesion and growth very similar to those of the commercial collagen membrane despite them showing a significantly lower protein adsorption. Moreover, the mechanical and water-related properties of the strontium-cross-linked mats embedding ZnO nanoparticles were proven to be similar to those of human skin (i.e., Young modulus of 470 MPa and water vapor permeability of 3.8 × 10–12 g/m Pa s), thus proving the ability of the prepared mats to be able to endure considerable stress, maintaining at the same time the fundamental ability to remove exudates. Taking into account the obtained results, the proposed alginate-based products could lead to harmless and affordable surgical patches and wound dressing membranes with a simpler and safer production procedure than the commonly employed animal collagen-derived systems.

Investigation of the Mechanical and Dynamic-Mechanical Properties of Electrospun Polyvinylpyrrolidone Membranes: A Design of Experiment Approach

“…Due to the great versatility and the high production rate compared to other fibre-forming technique [5], electrospinning has gained increasing interest from both the academic and industrial points of view, with a great range of possible applications and, indeed, several patents have been already registered [6][7][8]. For example, several electrospun membranes based on both synthetic and natural polymers were prepared for biomedical [9][10][11][12][13][14][15], environmental [16][17][18], air filtration [19][20][21], energy storage [22,23], sensing [24,25], and textile purposes [26,27], thus showing the huge future potentialities of this technique. The typical electrospinning set-up leads to randomly oriented nano-or microfibers exhibiting isotropic mechanical properties which usually show a lesser performance compared to other types of polymeric products (e.g., films, hydrogels, etc.)…”

Electrospun Nanofibrous Materials for Wound Healing

“…Various types of polymers including natural and synthetic polymers have been electrospun into nanofibers for skin healing. Specially, natural polymers, such as chitosan, sodium alginate, hyaluronic acid, gelatin, collagen, silk fibroin and so on, have drawn a great deal of attention owing to their excellent biocompatibility, good biodegradability, low cost, and favorable bioactivity [55][56][57]. Compared to natural polymers, synthetic polymers exhibit superior mechanical strength, processing flexibility as well as inferior biological property [58].…”

Electrospun Alginate Nanofibers Toward Various Applications: A Review

“…Besides the attractive attributes of alginate (viz., biocompatibility, biodegradability, and non-toxicity), electrospinning renders alginate additional structural features for wound healing such as acceptable porosity to assist in the transport of oxygen and moisture regulation onto the affected site while keeping bacteria out and malleable mechanical properties comparable to human skin. Moreover, bioactive substances can be incorporated to produce multifunctional products that can further promote wound healing [70]. PLGA/sodium alginate (SA) loaded with ciprofloxacin (antibiotic) for wound dressing was prepared by Liu et al [58].…”