Hyaluronic acid (HA) based nanofibers (NFs) represented a novel class of bioactive
wound dressings that have a vital role in
wound management due to their unique properties as an extracellular-matrix and accelerating wound healing. Novel
L-arginine-loaded
citric acid crosslinked
PVA-HA NFs were fabricated by electrospinning and proposed for potential wound healing purposes. However, poor mechanical properties of HA NFs might limit its
biological usage, thus this study aims to develop reinforced
PVA/HA NFs by incorporation of
cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) as nanofiller and loading
L-arginine as wound healing accelerator. Results revealed that incorporation of CNCs into
PVA/HA significantly improved mechanical and swelling properties of NFs, compared to CNC-free NFs.
Biological performance of NFs was evaluated on normal human skin melanocyte (HFB-4) and lung fibroblast (WI38) cell-lines.
PVA/HA/CNC/
L-arginine NFs exhibited excellent hemocompatibility, high
protein adsorption, outstanding proliferative and adhesive potential on HFB-4 cells expressed by high
wound gap-closure 99.9% after 48 h of exposure. Released
arginine from
PVA/HA/CNC NFs showed sustained release about 46.5% and ~90% after 24 h and 48 h, respectively. Briefly,
PVA/HA/CNCs/
L-arginine showed adequate antibacterial activity especially against Klebsiella
pneumonia, as an acute popular pathogen causing a skin
infection. These results indicate that
PVA/HA/CNC/
L-arginine could act as promising and multifunctional
wound dressings.