Biological response, antibacterial properties of ZrO2/hydroxyapatite/graphene oxide encapsulated into nanofibrous scaffolds of polylactic acid for wound healing applications

Abstract

Designing proper nanofibrous scaffolds for wound healing applications is a necessity for improving the health care system. Hydroxyapatite (HAP), zirconia (ZrO2), and graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets have been encapsulated in mono, di, or tri phases into nanofibrous scaffolds of polylactic acid (PLA). The structure of nanofibrous scaffolds is confirmed using XRD, XPS, while FESEM inspected the surface morphology. The surface morphology detection exhibited that the scaffolds have been formed in networked nanofibers with diameters from 1.19 to 2.38 to 0.59–1.42 µm, while the maximum height of the roughness increased from 610.4 to 809 nm for HAP@PLA and HAP/ZrO2/GO@PLA, respectively. The contact angle was measured and showed a decreasing trend from 101.2 ± 4.1° and 89.1 ± 5.4° for HAP@PLA and HAP/ZrO2/GO@PLA nanofibrous scaffolds. Moreover, the mechanical properties were examined and revealed that ZrO2 dopant induced a significant enhancement into the tensile strength, which increased from 3.49 ± 0.3 to 8.45 ± 1.1 MPa for the nanofibrous scaffolds of HAP@PLA and HAP/ZrO2/GO@PLA, respectively. The incorporation of ternary phases into PLA nanofibers promoted the cell viability to be around 98.2 ± 5%. The antibacterial potency has been investigated and showed that the activity increased to 69.2 ± 3.6 and 78.1 ± 4.5% against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. Additionally, human fibroblasts proliferated on the surface and pores of nanofibrous scaffolds and significantly grown upon the compositional variation.