Fabrication and characterization of cellulose acetate-EUSOL/polyvinyl alcohol-curcumin electro spun wound dressing for diabetic foot ulcer

Abstract

Diabetic foot ulcer is one of the serious complications of diabetes mellitus which grip the world with high comorbidity and mortality rates. The search for the best wound dressings has become more vital due to the rising population and incidence of chronic wounds. Wound dressings with nanofiber coatings have gained greater attention as creative and biocompatible materials. The Edinburg University Solution of Lime (EUSOL) is used an efficacious healing agent in the management of diabetic foot ulcer. In this work, we have fabricated a hybrid electro-spun nanofibrous patch of Cellulose Acetate (CA)/Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) with the encapsulation of therapeutic agent (EUSOL) and antimicrobial agent (Curcumin) respectively, for the immediate release of curcumin and sustain release of EUSOL to give antimicrobial effect and to promote granulation of tissues. The resultant Nano-fibrous films were characterized by SEM, ATR-FTIR, water contact angle measurement, tensile strength testing and UV–VIS Spectrophotometry to examine the morphology and chemical composition, wettability, stress–strain behavior and drug release profile. The drug release kinetics was evaluated through mathematical models Higuchi’s and Korsmeyer- Peppas. The characterization analysis shows the successful fabrication of nanofiber films. The release kinetic behavior of both encapsulated agents satisfied Higuchi’s model with co-efficient of correlation r2 = 0.91 and 0.86 which indicated that drug release diffusion is controlled. Dissolution was noticed as anomalous transport as fitted using Korsmeyer-Peppas equation. Consequently, the hybrid CA-EUSOL/PVA-Curcumin nanofibrous scaffolds are hopeful candidates for the sustainable and immediate release of therapeutic and antimicrobial agents to fabricate diabetic foot ulcer wound dressing.

Graphical Abstract