Synthesis and Comprehensive Characterization of PVA/Chitosan/Cu Nanowires Wound Dressing Hydrogel for Effective In Vitro Wound Healing

This work features the synthesis of a wound dressing hydrogel, with the facile synthesis of the non-oxide copper nanowires (aspect ratio: 5000, length > 100 μm), and the synthesis of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)/Chitosan matrix, crosslinked by TEOS, with enhanced flexibility by addition of Glycerol. The synthesized wound dressing showed high mechanical performance under the influence of nanowires, exhibiting 58.76 MPa tensile strength and 124.78 % elongation, also affecting the swelling behavior reaching 290 % swelling capacity. Biodegradation showed high structural stability and consistent biodegradation, losing only 9.6–21.5 % for nanocomposites in 7 days and 21–27.6 % after 14 days. Biological assessment by MTT assay showed 95–103 % cell viability on the human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) cells. The assessment on the MCF-7 cancer cells was also carried out where 90 % survival showed slight anticancer activity from the nanocomposites. Wound healing scratch assay showed high cell migration, wound closure, and wound healing in 72 h on HDF cells, while inhibiting the growth of MCF-7 cancer cells. Furthermore, the antibacterial activity was measured using a 96-well microdilution test exhibiting good antibacterial activity ranging around 50–97 % against both gram-positive (S. aureus) and gram-negative (E. coli) bacteria, suggesting that the designed nanocomposite hydrogel wound dressing has great potential for wound healing and treatment.