Biocompatible and Biodegradable Electrospun Nanofibrous Membranes Loaded with Grape Seed Extract for Wound Dressing Application

Abstract

The development of nanofibrous membranes with tunable wettability, degradation, and biocompatibility is highly keen for biomedical applications, including drug delivery and wound dressing. In this study, biocompatible and biodegradable nanofibrous membranes with antioxidant properties were successfully prepared by the electrospinning technique. The membranes were developed using polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) as the matrix, with the addition of grape seed extract (GSE), a rich source of natural antioxidants. The nanofibrous membranes were thoroughly characterized both from the materials and from the biocompatibility point of view. PLA and PLA/PEO nanofibers showed high encapsulation efficiency, close to 90%, while the encapsulated GSE retained its antioxidant capacity in the membranes. In vitro release studies showed that GSE diffuses from PLA/GSE and PLA/PEO/GSE membranes in a Fickian diffusion manner, whose experimental data were well fitted using the Korsmeyer-Peppas model. Furthermore, a higher controlled release of GSE was observed for the PLA/PEO/GSE membrane. Moreover, culturing experiments with human foreskin fibroblast (HFF1) cells demonstrated that all samples are biocompatible and showed that the GSE-loaded PLA/PEO nanofibrous membranes support better cell attachment and proliferation compared to the PLA/GSE nanofibrous membranes, owing to the superior hydrophilicity. In summary, the results suggested that the GSE-loaded membranes are a promising topical drug delivery system and have a great potential for wound dressing applications.

Encapsulation of Bioactive Compounds from Aloe Vera Agrowastes in Electrospun Poly (Ethylene Oxide) Nanofibers

“…This degradation comprised approximately 60% of the initial weight. The shown behaviour is in agreement with other authors who reported similar wide thermal degradation processes for other natural extracts such as rosemary extract [52], Chimonanthus praecox extract [91], and grape seeds extract [54].…”

“…This behaviour was more evident at high AVE loading, showing a decrease in T 1% of approximately 21, 40 and 55% for 5, 10 and 20 wt%, respectively, which was associated with the initial thermal degradation of AVE present in the polymer formulations. Locilento et al found a similar behaviour with decreasing thermal stability of the resulted electrospun nanofibers upon encapsulation of grape seeds extract, which was attributed to the dissolution/dispersion of the bioactive compound before encapsulation [54]. However, a minor increase in the temperature of maximum degradation of PEO/AVE nanofibers was observed with the addition of AVE, showing no significant differences occurred (p > 0.05) with the increase in AVE content (Table 1).…”

“…Similarly, Vatankhah [53] observed higher AO activity of cellulose acetate fibres when higher rosmarinic acid content was encapsulated. Furthermore, many authors demonstrated the antioxidant activity of polymer fibres or films incorporating natural extracts intended for food packaging applications [54,71,[114][115][116] and similar antioxidant values were obtained by using different natural extracts. Estevez-Areco et al [52] revealed an AO activity of 0.120 µmol Trolox mg −1 for electrospun PVA fibres loaded with rosemary extract, Araújo et al [117] On the other hand, it has been reported that encapsulation techniques could enhance the AO activity of natural compounds such as carotenoids [111] and curcumin [112], compared to their non-encapsulated forms.…”

“…The FTIR spectrum of AVE displayed the characteristic broad band of phenolic compounds at 3330 cm −1 corresponding to stretching modes of the different −OH groups. Furthermore, the peaks at 1733 and 1599 cm −1 could be attributed to C = O, and C = C ring stretching, respectively [54]. The FTIR spectrum of PEO nanofibers ( Figure 2) showed two peaks at 2880 and 1340 cm −1 which could be assigned to C-H stretching, and CH2 wagging vibration, respectively.…”

“…Authors have also demonstrated the presence of active compounds from natural extracts in electrospun nanofibers through the identification of characteristic peaks in FTIR spectra. For instance, the peaks observed around 1600 cm −1 for grape seed [54,56], rosemary [52] and Garcinia mangostana [88] extracts were used to verify the incorporation of these active additives in the nanofibers after electrospinning.…”