Incorporating redox-sensitive nanogels into bioabsorbable nanofibrous membrane to acquire ROS-balance capacity for skin regeneration

Shihao Zhang; Yamin Li; Xiaofeng Qiu; Anqi Jiao; Wei Luo; Xiajie Lin; Xiaohui Zhang; Zeren Zhang; Jiachan Hong; Peihao Cai; Yuhong Zhang; Yan Wu; Jie Gao; Changsheng Liu; Yulin Li

doi:10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.03.009

Incorporating redox-sensitive nanogels into bioabsorbable nanofibrous membrane to acquire ROS-balance capacity for skin regeneration

Bioact Mater. 2021 Mar 21;6(10):3461-3472. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.03.009. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Authors

Shihao Zhang¹, Yamin Li², Xiaofeng Qiu¹, Anqi Jiao¹, Wei Luo¹, Xiajie Lin¹, Xiaohui Zhang¹, Zeren Zhang¹, Jiachan Hong¹, Peihao Cai¹, Yuhong Zhang³, Yan Wu⁴, Jie Gao⁵, Changsheng Liu¹, Yulin Li^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ The Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China.
² Shanghai Jiaotong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, 200233, China.
³ Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, China.
⁴ Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Anti-fibrosis Biotherapy, Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang, 157011, China.
⁵ Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China.

Abstract

Facing the high incidence of skin diseases, it is urgent to develop functional materials with high bioactivity for wound healing, where reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in the wound healing process mainly via adjustment of immune response and neovasculation. In this study, we developed a kind of bioabsorbable materials with ROS-mediation capacity for skin disease therapy. Firstly, redox-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-acrylic acid) (PNA) nanogels were synthesized by radical emulsion polymerization method using a disulfide molecule as crosslinker. The resulting nanogels were then incorporated into the nanofibrous membrane of poly(_l-lactic acid) (PLLA) via airbrushing approach to offer bioabsorbable membrane with redox-sensitive ROS-balance capacity. In vitro biological evaluation indicated that the PNA-contained bioabsorbable membrane improved cell adhesion and proliferation compared to the native PLLA membrane. In vivo study using mouse wound skin model demonstrated that PNA-doped nanofibrous membranes could promote the wound healing process, where the disulfide bonds in them were able to adjust the ROS level in the wound skin for mediation of redox potential to achieve higher wound healing efficacy.

Keywords: Nanofibrous membrane; Polylactide; ROS-Balance capacity; Redox sensitivity; Skin regeneration.