Electrospun fiber mats containing silver nanoparticles with antibacterial activities

Abstract

Silver has a long history as an antimicrobial agent, especially in the treatment of burns. Several products have incorporated silver for use as a topical antibacterial agent, such as silver nitrate, silver sulphadiazine (SSD), silver sulphadiazine/chlorhexidine. Moreover, nanotechnology has provided a way of producing pure silver nanoparticles (nanoAg⁰). This system also markedly increases the rate of silver ion release. NanoAg⁰ is one of the most effective antimicrobial agents because of the high specific surface or volume fraction so that a large proportion of metal atoms are directly contact with the environment and can kill a wide range of bacteria. In this work, mats of poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN; My, ≈ 55,500) and gelatin (GT; Bloom ≈ 180) fibers containing nanoAg⁰ were prepared by e-spinning and these e-spun fiber mats were prepared to be used as surgical mask and wound dressing pads, respectively. The nanoAg⁰-containing poly(acrylonitrile) and gelatin fiber mats were characterized for various properties (i.e., morphological, mechanical, swelling, and weight loss), the release characteristic of the as-loaded silver as well as their antibacterial activity. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo biological evaluation of neat and nanoAg⁰-containing e-spun gelatin fiber mats with intended uses as wound dressing materials were investigated by studying the cytotoxicity and cell spreading of human dermal fibroblast (NHDF) or monocytes/macrophage on materials. In addition, morphologies of NHDF and monocytes/macrophage attached on these fibers were also observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and confocal microscopy, respectively.