Chapter 13 - Electrospun nanofibers for wound healing

Abstract

Skin serves as a protective impediment against the environment around the body. Development in cellular and molecular biology research has led to an understanding of the biological processes involved in wound repair and regeneration of tissues and has also resulted in an enhancement in wound care. Conventional therapies employed have restricted potential, which does not allow tissue re-epithelization and pivotal functions of the ruptured skin causing infection of wound and skin dehydration. Nano-based drug delivery systems are growing areas of research in wound healing and utilized in the enhancement of wound healing and re-modeling of skin, cost-effective preparations. Therefore, research has been carried on nanofibers which have resulted in improved skin reestablishment and have the potential of enhancing cell growth and proliferation as well as the capacity of delivering bioactive molecules at the ruptured site. Electrospun nanofibers have gathered wide and extensive popularity in every field such as biomedicals, environmental, implants as well as in the rapid closure and healing of wounds. Electrospun nanofibers scaffold offers advantages such as higher surface to volume area ratio, reticulated nanoporosity, sustained release of the molecules, adequate cellular respiration, high flexibility, easy assimilation of proteins, and hence all these properties make them as an ideal nanofiber for utilization in the healing of the wound. In this review, authors have more focused on elaborating the mechanisms for wound healing, various nano-based formulations for wound repairing, and advancement in the field of nanofibers formulation for wound healing.