Multifunctional Wound Dressings: Melt Electrowritten Scaffolds Combined With Phytotherapeutic Composite Hydrogels

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of impaired wounds, caused mainly by diabetes or aging, alongside the growing number of bacterial infections, indicates the need for alternative tissue engineering solutions. In this study, we developed novel melt electrowritten (MEW) polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds incorporated with an alginate (Alg)–gelatin (Gel)–xanthan gum (Xan) hydrogel (HD). Besides improving cell adhesion and biocompatibility, the HD served as a local delivery platform for clove oil-loaded mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGNs+CLV), providing antioxidant and antibacterial functionality. The morphological evaluation proved that the pores of the PCL MEW scaffolds were uniformly covered by an interconnected porous HD network embedding MBGNs+CLV. Importantly, the presence of MBGNs+CLV conferred the system with antioxidant and antibacterial properties against E. coli and S. aureus, while increasing the viability of normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF). At the same time, MBGNs+CLV-containing scaffolds showed a decrease in swelling and a delay in degradation, while CLV was released in a two-step manner. Thus, these findings highlight the potential of the MBGNs+CLV-loaded-HD-reinforced PCL MEW scaffolds as a convenient tissue engineering strategy for the treatment of skin wounds.