Antimicrobial Electrospun Chitosan Nanofibrous Membranes Functionalized with Silver Nanoparticles

The application of nanotechnologies in the development of biomaterials has at present of potential interest for medical application. Among the polymers for this aim, chitosan (Ch) is one of the most promising due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and antibacterial modes. Electrospinning is an economy and highly reproducible procedure for the fabrication of polymeric nanofibrous membranes. This study applied the appropriate electrospinning parameters to manufacture membranes made of Ch solution in a combination of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and dichloromethane (DMC) as solvent systems. The ability of Ch nanofibers to influence bacterial adhesion and proliferation was enforced by the loading of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). We demonstrated that enhancing the antibacterial potential of silver-contained Ch membranes depends on the amount of AgNPs. Otherwise, the viability and bacterial growth of the E. coli strain were lower during co-cultivation with Ch-Ag samples than S. aureus. The biofilm formation capacity was better in silver nanoparticle-free membranes. We confirmed that an increase of AgNPs content noticeable decreases the biofilm formation ability. These results demonstrate that nanofibrous Ch materials contained AgNPs in concentrations not exceeded minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) might be promising antibacterial material due to extensive bacterial suppression and biofilm inhibition effect.