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Abstract
The healing of a skin wound is a complex process requiring the joint efforts of many different tissues and cell lineages, and a major concern of the healing process is bacterial infection. Wounds lead to exposure of subcutaneous tissue which provides a nutritious environment conducive to microbial colonization and proliferation. The presence of bacteria at the wound site down-regulates the host's immune response and ultimately delays the natural wound healing process. This leads to a great demand for wound dressings that have antibacterial properties, and positively affect the inflammation, proliferation and remodeling stages of the healing process, while also providing a protective barrier.
In this study, we developed a biocompatible and antibacterial electrospun wound dressing. A double healing factor system was designed by using the electrospinning method, where the ancient healing medicine – honey was loaded with the Nitric Oxide (NO) donor – S-Nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) to a Polylactic acid (PLA) fiber. Honey is one of nature’s wound healing agents due to its complex composition and high sugar level, it has antibacterial potential, immunomodulatory effect, antioxidant capacity and high biocompatibility. The fact that honey can accelerate wound repairing has been proven in countless studies. Furthermore, in the last two decades, NO has emerged as a critical player in all four phases of natural wound healing namely hemostasis, inflammation, fibroblast proliferation, and tissue remodeling. Because of its rapid action, short-half-life, and nonspecific action it does not promote antibacterial resistance.
The synergistic effects of honey and NO donor, SNAP was studied by fabricating four types of fibers: PLA, PLA-Honey, PLA-SNAP and PLA-Honey-SNAP. The combination of honey and SNAP demonstrated the best antibacterial ability without being cytotoxic. Also, with the presence of honey, the fiber showed strong antioxidant ability, which is a beneficial physical property, and can speed-up the wound healing.
In this study, we developed a biocompatible and antibacterial electrospun wound dressing. A double healing factor system was designed by using the electrospinning method, where the ancient healing medicine – honey was loaded with the Nitric Oxide (NO) donor – S-Nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) to a Polylactic acid (PLA) fiber. Honey is one of nature’s wound healing agents due to its complex composition and high sugar level, it has antibacterial potential, immunomodulatory effect, antioxidant capacity and high biocompatibility. The fact that honey can accelerate wound repairing has been proven in countless studies. Furthermore, in the last two decades, NO has emerged as a critical player in all four phases of natural wound healing namely hemostasis, inflammation, fibroblast proliferation, and tissue remodeling. Because of its rapid action, short-half-life, and nonspecific action it does not promote antibacterial resistance.
The synergistic effects of honey and NO donor, SNAP was studied by fabricating four types of fibers: PLA, PLA-Honey, PLA-SNAP and PLA-Honey-SNAP. The combination of honey and SNAP demonstrated the best antibacterial ability without being cytotoxic. Also, with the presence of honey, the fiber showed strong antioxidant ability, which is a beneficial physical property, and can speed-up the wound healing.