Biodegradable piezoelectric skin-wound scaffold

Ritopa Das; Thinh T Le; Benjamin Schiff; Meysam T Chorsi; Jinyoung Park; Priscilla Lam; Andrew Kemerley; Ajayan Mannoor Supran; Amit Eshed; Ngoc Luu; Nikhil G Menon; Tannin A Schmidt; Hanzhang Wang; Qian Wu; Mahesh Thirunavukkarasu; Nilanjana Maulik; Thanh D Nguyen

doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2023.122270

Biodegradable piezoelectric skin-wound scaffold

Biomaterials. 2023 Oct:301:122270. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2023.122270. Epub 2023 Aug 8.

Authors

Ritopa Das¹, Thinh T Le², Benjamin Schiff³, Meysam T Chorsi⁴, Jinyoung Park¹, Priscilla Lam⁵, Andrew Kemerley⁵, Ajayan Mannoor Supran⁵, Amit Eshed⁶, Ngoc Luu⁷, Nikhil G Menon⁸, Tannin A Schmidt⁹, Hanzhang Wang¹⁰, Qian Wu¹⁰, Mahesh Thirunavukkarasu⁵, Nilanjana Maulik⁵, Thanh D Nguyen¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
³ Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
⁵ Molecular Cardiology and Angiogenesis Laboratory, Department of Surgery, University of Connecticut Health School of Medicine, Farmington, 06030, CT, USA.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
⁷ Department of Biomedical Engineering, New York University, New York, NY, 10012, USA.
⁸ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, 06030, CT, USA.
⁹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, 06030, CT, USA; Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
¹⁰ Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT, 06030, USA.
¹¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA; Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA. Electronic address: nguyentd@uconn.edu.

PMID: 37591188
PMCID: PMC10528909 (available on 2024-10-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2023.122270

Abstract

Electrical stimulation (ES) induces wound healing and skin regeneration. Combining ES with the tissue-engineering approach, which relies on biomaterials to construct a replacement tissue graft, could offer a self-stimulated scaffold to heal skin-wounds without using potentially toxic growth factors and exogenous cells. Unfortunately, current ES technologies are either ineffective (external stimulations) or unsafe (implanted electrical devices using toxic batteries). Hence, we propose a novel wound-healing strategy that integrates ES with tissue engineering techniques by utilizing a biodegradable self-charged piezoelectric PLLA (Poly (l-lactic acid)) nanofiber matrix. This unique, safe, and stable piezoelectric scaffold can be activated by an external ultrasound (US) to produce well-controlled surface-charges with different polarities, thus serving multiple functions to suppress bacterial growth (negative surface charge) and promote skin regeneration (positive surface charge) at the same time. We demonstrate that the scaffold activated by low intensity/low frequency US can facilitate the proliferation of fibroblast/epithelial cells, enhance expression of genes (collagen I, III, and fibronectin) typical for the wound healing process, and suppress the growth of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa bacteria in vitro simultaneously. This approach induces rapid skin regeneration in a critical-sized skin wound mouse model in vivo. The piezoelectric PLLA skin scaffold thus assumes the role of a multi-tasking, biodegradable, battery-free electrical stimulator which is important for skin-wound healing and bacterial infection prevention simultaneuosly.

Keywords: Biodegradable piezoelectric nanofibers; Electrical stimulation; Skin regeneration; Ultrasound; Wound healing.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Animals
Biocompatible Materials
Collagen Type I
Mice
Skin*
Staphylococcus aureus*
Wound Healing

Substances

Biocompatible Materials
Collagen Type I

Grants and funding

R21 AR076646/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/United States