PLGA-based electrospun nanofibers loaded with dual bioactive agent loaded scaffold as a potential wound dressing material

Chronic and infectious wounds are major public health issues with financial and clinical manifestations. Developing a multitasking extracellular matrix mimicking scaffold can bring revolution saving millions of lives. Many bioactive agents are offering therapeutic promises in managing infectious wounds but require a suitable delivery system to ensure not only their bioavailability possible on the wound site but also control their burst release hence making them either useless or highly cytotoxic. In this study, we reported the dual bioactive agent-loaded electrospinning nanofibers potentially useable against infectious wounds. The zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF), highly relevant bioactive agents, were chosen to be co-delivered to the wound site through the core-shell electrospun membrane. The physicochemical properties of prepared membranes were characterized through various physicochemical tools. Our result demonstrated that PLGA polymer can be electrospun into smooth fibers. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the successful loading of ZnO NPs which was further confirmed by TEM. The fabricated membrane exhibited a suitable mechanical behavior. Moreover, the incorporation of ZnO NPs has turned the nanofibers into an effective antibacterial scaffold. Besides, the membranes were also evaluated for their cytotoxicity. The in vitro cell culturing on various membranes revealed that cell maintained their maximum viability on all the membranes. The potential of in vivo wound healing was further demonstrated through animal experiments. Our results show that membranes could not only influence early wound contraction, but also better tissue organization demonstrated through histopathological evaluation. We successfully demonstrated the rich vascularization network by synching the actions of ZnO NPs and VEGF. In conclusion, the fabricated membranes possess suitable physicochemical properties and promising biological activity and hence should be further exploited for in vivo wound healing potential.