Recent evolutions in the field of biomaterials have focused on developing materials that can facilely interface with biological systems to treat or replace tissues or functions of the body. Natural polymers, including polysaccharides, have been investigated as suitable biomaterials to mimic the environment of body tissues and facilitate tissue regeneration. Electrospinning natural polymers, like alginate and chitosan, yields nanofibers that have shown promise as tissue scaffolds and drug delivery vehicles. However, little research has been published on the controlled delivery of drugs from natural polymer fibrous dressings. The lack of studies in this area is due in part to the difficulty of electrospinning charged polymers, like alginate and chitosan, and the slow degradation of these polymers under physiological conditions. The long term goal of this project is to generate a better understanding of natural polymer based wound healing materials and their small molecule release profiles towards their implementation in wound healing treatments. This research has taken a three-pronged approach regarding the investigation of natural polymer based fibers. One facet focuses on the development of novel alginate based, degradable nanofibers. Another facet focuses on the preparation of drug loaded, alginate and chitosan based fibers via electrospinning and the exploration of the release profiles of these scaffolds. A third facet investigates covalently modified alginate and chitosan drug conjugate nanofibers and the hydrolytic release profile of these novel innately therapeutic scaffolds. Studies from all approaches will lead to improved understanding of alginate and chitosan based materials for biomedical applications, especially in the field of modern drug laden, wound dressings.

Therapeutic electrospun natural polymer based fiber scaffolds for biomedical applications

255th National Meeting (2018)

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