Antimicrobial eugenol-loaded electrospun membranes of poly(ε-caprolactone)/gelatin incorporated with REDV for vascular graft applications

Abstract

Confronted with the risk of stenosis and bacterial infection, vascular grafts are necessarily required with rapid endothelialization and antibacterial activity. In this work, dual-functional electrospun membranes of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)/gelatin were developed. A short active peptide, REDV, was covalently conjugated with a low molecular weight PCL to obtain REDV-PCL-REDV, which was introduced into the electrospun fibers to improve the adhesion and proliferation of vascular endothelial cells (VECs) on the electrospun membranes. Additionally, a plant-extracted antibacterial agent, eugenol, was loaded for the antibacterial purpose. Results suggested that the electrospun membranes demonstrated acceptable mechanical properties and release profiles. The electrospun membrane containing 30% of eugenol could inhibit Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus with 71.6±3.3% and 78.6±2.5% of growth inhibition rates, respectively. Further results showed all the electrospun membranes exhibited lower cytotoxicity towards L929 fibroblasts with more than 80% of relative cell viability. The VEC culture assays indicated that the REDV-modified electrospun membranes by the incorporation of REDV-PCL-REDV could significantly promote VEC adhesion and proliferation. Therefore, the dual-functional electrospun membranes with endothelialization and antibacterial abilities by incorporating REDV and eugenol could be potentially applied as promising vascular grafts.