Abstract
Despite all the efforts that have been done up to now, the currently available wound dressings are still unable to fully re-establish all the structural and functional properties of the native skin. To overcome this situation, researchers from the tissue engineering area have been developing new wound dressings (hydrogels, films, sponges, membranes) aiming to mimic all the features of native skin. Among them, asymmetric membranes emerged as a promising solution since they reproduce both epidermal and dermal skin layers. Wet or dry/wet phase inversion, scCO2-assisted phase inversion, and electrospinning have been the most used techniques to produce such a type of membranes. Among them, the electrospinning technique, due to its versatility, allows the development of multifunctional dressings, using natural and/or synthetic polymers, which resemble the extracellular matrix of native skin as well as address the specific requirements of each skin layer. Moreover, various therapeutic or antimicrobial agents have been loaded within nanofibers to further improve the wound healing performance of these membranes. This review article provides an overview of the application of asymmetric electrospun membranes as wound dressings displaying antibacterial activity and as delivery systems of biomolecules that act as wound healing enhancers.
Highlights
Skin is the largest and outermost organ of the human body, with approximately2 m2 of area and a mean thickness of 2.5 mm [1,2]
The in vivo assays performed on type 2 diabetic mice showed that the wounds treated with the PeCL/Gel-Pio asymmetric membrane were almost fully closed on day 10, whereas the same was only observed at day 14 in the groups treated with PeCL/Gel and Tegaderm
The electrospun asymmetric membranes have been emerging in recent years as promising wound dressings
Summary
2 m2 of area and a mean thickness of 2.5 mm [1,2]. This organ is involved in important functions in the human body, namely thermoregulation, prevention of water and fluid loss, immune surveillance, hormone synthesis, and sensory detection [1,3]. Due to its anatomical location, it acts as a barrier against microbial invasion as well as mechanical and chemical insults, conferring protection to the body [3] In this way, when the skin’s structure is compromised, the use of dressing materials to cover and protect the wound to re-establish a temporary or, in the case of extensive wounds, a permanent fully functional body barrier is of utmost importance [4]. Hydrogels, and hydrocolloids are some examples, and they present a few advantages such as the capacity to enable the transmission of gases and maintain a moist environment at the wound site, which improves and accelerates the wound healing process [14] These approaches have some limitations, the possibility of maceration, and the necessity for periodic replacement, and until now, none of them have been capable of fully restoring the skin’s native structure and functions [15,16]. The application of asymmetric electrospun membranes to mediate the delivery of biologically active molecules, i.e., antibacterial agents or wound healing enhancers, was highlighted
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