Cutaneous wounds represent a major issue in medical care, with approximately 300 million chronic and 100 million traumatic wound patients worldwide, and microbial infections slow the healing process. The aim of this work was to develop electrospun scaffolds loaded with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to enhance cutaneous healing, preventing wound infections. AgNPs were directly added to polymeric blends based on chitosan (CH) and pullulan (PUL) with hyaluronic acid (HA) or chondroitin sulfate (CS) to be electrospun obtaining nanofibrous scaffolds. Moreover, a scaffold based on CH and PUL and loaded with AgNPs was prepared as a comparison. The scaffolds were characterized by chemico-physical properties, enzymatic degradation, biocompatibility, and antimicrobial properties. All the scaffolds were based on nanofibers (diameters about 500 nm) and the presence of AgNPs was evidenced by TEM and did not modify their morphology. The scaffold degradation was proven by means of lysozyme. Moreover, the AgNPs loaded scaffolds were characterized by a good propensity to promote fibroblast proliferation, avoiding the toxic effect of silver. Furthermore, scaffolds preserved AgNP antimicrobial properties, although silver was entrapped into nanofibers. Chitosan/chondroitin sulfate scaffold loaded with AgNPs demonstrated promotion of fibroblast proliferation and to possess antimicrobial properties, thus representing an interesting tool for the treatment of chronic wounds.
Keywords: antimicrobial properties; chitosan; chondroitin sulfate; electrospun skin scaffold; enzymatic degradation; hyaluronic acid; silver nanoparticles.