Wound infection has threatened the health of humans, and developing novel dressings by integrating infection detection and wound treatment in biomaterials is urgently required in the medical industry. In this study, we report a facile strategy to develop curcumin functionalized poly(ε-caprolactone) and gelatin composite fibrous membranes with pH real-time monitoring and antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. The developed curcumin-functionalized composite fibers displayed highly sensitive and visible response to the variation of the pH value of a buffer solution in the range of 5.6-8.6. In addition, the resultant fibrous membrane showed obviously enhanced antibacterial efficiency against both E. coli and S. aureus and no obvious cytotoxicity to human dermal fibroblasts when the curcumin content was less than 5 wt %. More importantly, 3 wt % curcumin-functionalized composite membrane exhibited excellent anti-inflammatory activities, good antioxidant activity of ca. 82%, and significantly decreased expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α and IL-6 in vitro (p < 0.001). Furthermore, subcutaneous embedding experiments showed that the 3 wt % curcumin-functionalized membrane significantly promoted cell penetration, recruited less macrophages, and facilitated collage deposition. Therefore, the curcumin-functionalized composite fibers could be employed to fabricate multifunctional dressings for the future treatment of chronic wounds.
Keywords: anti-inflammatory; antibacterial; curcumin; electrospinning; pH monitor.