Surface biofunctional bFGF-loaded electrospun suture accelerates incisional wound healing

• Published in: Materials & design 2023-01, Vol.225, p.111451, Article 111451
• Main Authors: Li, Yi, Luo, Hangqi, Li, Yue, Huang, Peipei, Xu, Jie, Zhang, Jian, Cai, Peihan, He, Huacheng, Wu, Jiang, Li, Xiaokun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrospinning; Growth factor; Suture; Wound healing
• ISSN: 0264-1275; 1873-4197
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2022.111451

[Display omitted] •Degradable PCL suture is facilely fabricated by electrospinning.•bFGF is anchoring on the surface of PCL suture to facilitate cell adhesion and sustained release.•The bFGF loaded suture effectively accelerates incisional wound healing.•The bFGF loaded suture significantly enhances the mechanical recovery of the injured skin. Surgical suture plays an important role in increasing wound repair. However, the healing efficacy of sutures currently is still not satisfactory due to their failure in regulating healing biology. Therefore, developing functional sutures are highly required. Herein, we fabricated a new degradable suture to control the release of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) for incisional wound healing. The suture (bFGF-DA@PCL) was simply made by anchoring bFGF onto the surface of the electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) suture through the assistance of dopamine with a bFGF loading efficiency around 80 %. The introduction of dopamine to the suture also increased the mechanical strength of suture from 17 kPa to 27 kPa. The in vitro data evidenced that the suture could effectively prolong bFGF release up to 10 days and enhance cell adhesion and proliferation. Further in vivo results demonstrated that the suture could increase wound healing and induce a complete wound closure within 13 days. Moreover, the suture was found to accelerate skin mechanical restoration with a recovery of maximum strength to 87.1 % of the healthy skin. The suture was also revealed to help the skin wound healing by promoting granulation tissue formation, collagen deposition, reepithelization, and basement membrane reconstruction.