An electrospun scaffold loaded with anti-androgen receptor compound for accelerating wound healing

Current dermal regenerative scaffolds provide wound coverage, and structural support and guidance for tissue repair, but usually lack enough bio-signals needed for speeding up skin cell growth, migration, wound closure, and skin regeneration. In this study, an androgen receptor (AR) inhibitor called ASC-J9 is used to demonstrate the concept and feasibility of fabricating drug-loaded scaffolds via electrospinning. Inhibition of androgen is known to promote skin wound healing. The novel ASC-J9 -loaded porous scaffold was fabricated for skin wound repair using electrospun fibers of collagen and polycaprolactone (PCL) blend. Our preliminary results indicated that ASC-J9 -loaded scaffolds facilitated more efficient attachment and ingrowth of dermal fibroblasts, compared to the control collagen-PCL scaffold. A significant increase of cell proliferation was observed with the drug-loaded scaffold over a 28day period. The drug-loaded scaffold also accelerated keratinocyte migration and wound closure in a contraction-inhibited mouse wound model over 21 days. The data indicated a sustained release of ASC-J9 from the scaffold and its potential to accelerate wound healing by promoting cell proliferation and migration over an extended period of time. More importantly, our results proved the concept and feasibility of fabricating drug-releasing or bioactive dermal scaffolds for more effective wound healing.