Preparation of tissue-engineered wound dressing consisting of chitosan fibers containing silver ion-doped bioactive nanoparticles for wound healing

Wound healing is a complicated process involving the proliferation of the epithelial cells, deposition of granulation tissue as well as recruitment of inflammatory cells. It also is a hot topic of research for trauma, orthopedics and general surgery studies. There are many forms of cells involved in this process. This study aimed to design a tissue-engineered wound dressing consisting of chitosan fibers containing silver ion bioactive nanoparticles for wound healing.

The present study is an experimental study that was conducted in the research laboratory of the Department of Biology of Mohaghegh Ardabili University from April to November 2019. All experiments of this study have been performed under the ethical guideline of Helsinki and in accordance with the Ethics Committee of the Mohaghegh Ardabili University of Ardabil (Iran). The wound dressing of nanofibers was prepared by the sol-gel method. Cytotoxicity was assessed by MTT assay. Then the antimicrobial properties of nanofibers were determined by the disk diffusion method. SEM and AFM images were obtained from nanofibers. Finally, nanofibers were analyzed by the FTRI method.

Results of the prepared tissue-engineered wound dressing consisting of chitosan fibers containing silver ion-doped bioactive nanoparticles showed that cytotoxicity was at an appropriate level. The nanofibers prepared with 2% silver nanoparticles produced a 10 mm inhibition zone against Staphylococcus aureus and a 9 mm inhibition zone against Escherichia coli. Therefore, the best percentage of scaffolds in the present study was 2%. Also, results of the SEM micrographs and AFM image analysis of the scaffolds showed that the nanofibers had good roughness and a proper structure for cell seeding and attachments. Besides that, FTIR analysis also showed that the prepared nanofibers had standard bonds.

Chitosan-Silver nanoparticles scaffold have antimicrobial activity on Gram-negative and positive bacteria. The results of the toxicity test also showed that it did not have much toxicity on the cultured cells. Therefore, it can be considered for therapeutic applications, such as wound dressing.