Study of multi-functional electrospun composite nanofibrous mats for smart wound healing

Composite nanofibers derived from synthetic and natural polymers normally show desirable characteristics in biomedical applications. In this study, composite nanofibrous mats (denoted as CNMs) with diameters of around 300 nm were fabricated facilely using blends of chitosan, gelatin and shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) by electrospinning and subsequent post-treatment with a silver nitrate solution. The obtained CNMs have shape memory effect and show desirable water vapor transmission ratio, surface wettability, satisfactory biological properties including antibacterial activity against the common Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, cytocompatibility demonstrated to fibroblast, and the hemostatic property through a whole-blood clotting test. In addition, such CNMs can possibly benefit the wound healing through shape fixation-assisted easy processing and shape recovery-assisted closure of cracked wounds, which can be fine-tuned by pre-programming. Therefore, the CNMs presented in this study can be used as potential smart wound dressings.