Investigating alginate and chitosan electrospun nanofibers as a potential wound dressing: an in vitro study

Abstract

The research project focuses on conducting an in vitro comparison between sodium alginate and chitosan electrospun nanofibers for moist wound management. These fabricated nanofibers were incorporated with levofloxacin (Lev) as a model drug to investigate their release behavior. The study included a comprehensive examination of the physicochemical, thermal, antibacterial, and cytocompatibility properties of these nanofibers. Both sodium alginate (SA-L) and chitosan (CS-L) nanofibers were successfully produced with a homogeneous and defect-free structure. XRD and FTIR analyses were conducted to validate the incorporation of Lev in the nanofibers. In terms of liquid absorption capacity, it was observed that sodium alginate nanofibers outperformed chitosan nanofibers, exhibiting absorption capacities of 5.9, 5.88, and 7.1 g/g for PBS, solution A, and DI, respectively, for SA-L, compared to 5.27, 4.42, and 5.3 g/g for CS-L nanofibers. This superior absorption ability in SA-L nanofibers may be attributed to the inherent gel-forming properties of alginate in aqueous environments. Furthermore, the release kinetics indicated that SA-L nanofibers exhibited faster drug release compared to CS-L nanofibers, which could be attributed to alginate’s natural gel-forming tendency in aqueous mediums. Both SA-L and CS-L nanofibers demonstrated remarkable efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), with CS-L nanofibers displaying larger inhibition zones in agar diffusion tests due to chitosan’s inherent antibacterial properties. Moreover, cytocompatibility assessments using the HaCat cell line revealed that the prepared nanofibers were biocompatible and non-toxic. Interestingly, CS-L nanofibers exhibited superior cell proliferation when compared to SA-L nanofibers, potentially attributed to the inherent positively charged amine groups which enhance proliferation and migration of negatively charged keratinocytes.

Keywords

• Biocompatibility
• chitosan
• electrospinning
• moist wound management
• nanofibers
• sodium alginate