Antibacterial and wound healing properties of cellulose acetate electrospun nanofibers loaded with bioactive glass nanoparticles; in-vivo study

Bioactive glasses (BGs) have gained great attention owing to their versatile biological properties. Combining BG nanoparticles (BGNPs) with polymeric nanofibers produced nanocomposites of great performance in various biomedical applications especially in regenerative medicine. In this study, a novel nanocomposite nanofibrous system was developed and optimized from cellulose acetate (CA) electrospun nanofibers containing different concentrations of BGNPs. Morphology, IR and elemental analysis of the prepared electrospun nanofibers were determined using SEM, FT-IR and EDX respectively. Electrical conductivity and viscosity were also studied. Antibacterial properties were then investigated using agar well diffusion method. Moreover, biological wound healing capabilities for the prepared nanofiber dressing were assessed using in-vivo diabetic rat model with induced wounds. The fully characterized CA electrospun uniform nanofiber (100–200 nm) with incorporated BGNPs exhibited broad range of antimicrobial activity against gram negative and positive bacteria. The BGNP loaded CA nanofiber accelerated wound closure efficiently by the 10th day. The remaining wound areas for treated rats were 95.7 ± 1.8, 36.4 ± 3.2, 6.3 ± 1.5 and 0.8 ± 0.9 on 1st, 5th, 10th and 15th days respectively. Therefore, the newly prepared BGNP CA nanocomposite nanofiber could be used as a promising antibacterial and wound healing dressing for rapid and efficient recovery.