Production of a novel poly(ɛ‐caprolactone)‐methylcellulose electrospun wound dressing by incorporating bioactive glass and Manuka honey

Abstract

Wound dressings produced by electrospinning exhibit a fibrous structure close to the one of the extracellular matrix of the skin. In this article, electrospinning was used to fabricate fiber mats based on the well-known biopolymers poly(ϵ-caprolactone) (PCL) and methylcellulose (MC) using benign solvents. The blend fiber mats were crosslinked using Manuka honey and additionally used as a biodegradable platform to deliver bioactive glass particles. It was hypothesized that a dual therapeutic effect can be achieved by combining Manuka honey and bioactive glass. Morphological and chemical examinations confirmed the successful production of submicrometric PCL-MC fiber mats containing Manuka honey and bioactive glass particles. The multifunctional fiber mats exhibited improved wettability and suitable mechanical properties (ultimate tensile strength of 3-5 MPa). By performing dissolution tests using simulated body fluid, the improved bioactivity of the fiber mats by the addition of bioactive glass was confirmed. Additionally, cell biology tests using human dermal fibroblasts and human keratinocytes-like HaCaT cells showed the potential of the fabricated composite fiber mats to be used as wound dressing, specially due to the ability to support wound closure influenced by the presence of bioactive glass. Moreover, based on the results of the antibacterial tests, it is apparent that an optimization of the electrospun fiber mats is required to develop suitable wound dressing for the treatment of infected wounds.

The effect of borate bioactive glass on the printability of methylcellulose-manuka honey hydrogels

“…However, the presence of BG inside the BG-containing samples cannot be clearly detected by FTIR. This effect was already reported previously, when BG of the same composition was used in the fields of electrospinning and freeze drying [9,10]. A reason for this behavior could be the immersion of the BG particles in the hydrogel matrix and the resulting surface coverage, which leads to no clearly detectable BG peaks inside the composite system.…”

“…Among other advantages, MC is a highly biocompatible material, which is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for several applications, e.g., for use in pharmaceuticals [8]. As we showed in previous studies [9,10], MC can be chemically crosslinked with manuka honey (H), by the action of methylglyoxal groups present in the honey, which has been proven to cross-link cellulose [11]. Among its other favorable biological effects in wound healing (e.g., antibacterial effect, stimulation of wound epithelialization and anti-inflammatory efficiency), H is an interesting natural cross-linker, which makes unnecessary the addition of other standard and potentially cytotoxic cross-linkers, such as glutaraldehyde, which could have negative effects on the biological system [12][13][14][15].…”

“…Based on previous results focusing on the use of MC-H solutions for electrospinning and freeze drying [9,10], the increase of the stability of MC scaffolds was investigated by considering the addition of H, achieving a (mild) cross-linking effect. Indeed, the stability of the hydrogel was shown to be improved by adding H to MC in a ratio of 1:2.…”

“…To evaluate the cytocompatibility of the scaffolds, a preliminary cell test using human dermal fibroblasts (hDFs) was performed [10]. Scaffolds were disinfected using UV light for 1 h. Cells were seeded by using the technique of drop seeding to reduce the amount of cells falling from the printed structures having a slightly curved surface, to prevent cell proliferation only on the surface of the cell culture plate.…”

The Effect of a Polyester Nanofibrous Membrane with a Fibrin-Platelet Lysate Coating on Keratinocytes and Endothelial Cells in a Co-Culture System

“…Anchorage-dependent cells, including keratinocyte cells, must adhere in order to resume the cell cycle and proliferate. PCL is known to be more hydrophobic (an unfavourable factor in terms of support for cell adhesion) than other commonly used synthetic degradable polymers (e.g., PLA, PLGA) [ 33 , 34 ]. This disadvantage with regard to PCL can, however, be mitigated via the co-polymerization of ɛ-caprolactone with L-lactic acid, following which the resulting PLCL copolymer presents more favourable surface properties in terms of cell adhesion due to its enhanced hydrophilicity [ 4 , 35 ].…”